»: 


m 


•H5t^te3^ftR  '.  *-' 


THE 


CHRISTIAN    HOME, 


AS    IT   IS    IN    THE 


•pjjcre  af  Uafurc  aid>  tjje  Cjntrrjj, 


The  Mission,  Duties,  Influences,  Habits,  and  Responsibilities  of  Home  ; 

its  Education,  Government,  and  Discipline;  with  Hints  on  "Match 

Making,"  and  the  Relation  of  Parents  to  the  Marriage  Choice 

of  their  Children;  together  with  a  consideration  of  the 

Tests  in  the  Selection  of  a  Companion,  Etc. 


BY 

REV.    S.   PHILLIPS,  A.M. 


"  Sweet  is  the  smile  of  Home  I  the  mutual  look. 
When  hearts  arc  of  each  other  sure  ; 
Sweet  all  the  joys  that  crowd  the  household  nook, 
The  haunt  of  all  affections  pure." 


SOCIAL  CIRCLE,  GEO. : 

PUBLISHED     BY    E.    NEBHUT. 

186  1. 


PREFACE. 


It  is  a  fact  conceded  by  all,  that  the  constitution  of  the 
Christian  family,  and  its  social  and  spiritual  relations,  are 
not  as  fully  developed  as  they  should  be.  In  this  age  of 
extreme  individualism,  we  have  almost  left  out  of  view  the 
mission  of  home  as  the  first  form  of  society,  and  the  import- 
ant bearing  it  has  upon  the  formation  of  character.  Its  in- 
terests are  not  appreciated ;  its  duties  and  privileges  are  neg- 
lected ;  husbands  and  wives  do  not  fully  realize  their  moral 
relation  to  each  other ;  parents  are  inclined  to  renounce  their 
authority ;  and  children,  brought  up  in  a  state  of  domestic 
libertinism,  neither  respect  nor  obey  their  parents  as  they 
should.  The  idea  of  human  character  as  a  development 
from  the  nursery  to  the  grave,  is  not  realized.  Home  as  a 
preparation  for  both  the  state  and  the  church,  and  its  bear- 
ing, as  such,  upon  the  prosperity  of  both,  are  renounced  as 
traditionary,  and  too  old  and  stale  to  suit  this  age  of  me- 
chanical progression  and  "young  Americanism." 

As  a  consequence,  the  influence  of  home  is  lost ;  the  lambs 
of  tho  flock  aro  neglected,  grow  up  in  spiritual  ignoranco, 


IV  PREFACE. 

and  become  a  curse  both  to  themselves  and  to  their  parents. 
The  vice  and  infidelity  which  prevail  to  such  an  alarming  ex- 
tent in  the  present  day,  may  be  ascribed  to  parental  neglect 
of  the  young.  The  desolating  curse  of  heaven  invariably 
accompanies  neglect  of  domestic  obligations  and  duties ;  it 
was  this  that  constituted  that  dreadful  degeneracy  which  pre- 
ceded the  coming  of  the  Messiah.  The  parents  were  alien- 
ated from  the  children,  and  the  children  from  their  parents. 
And  the  only  way  in  which  the  Jews  could  avert  deserved 
and  impending  ruin,  was  by  "  turning  the  heart  of  the  fathers 
to  the  children,  and  the  heart  of  the  children  to  their  fathers." 

We  must  adopt  the  same  method.  We  need  in  the  pres- 
ent day  a  deeper  and  more  scriptural  sense,  both  in  the  state 
and  church,  of  the  importance  of  the  family,  and  of  its  posi- 
tion in  the  sphere  of  natural  and  religious  life.  The  atten- 
tion of  the  people  should  be  directed  to  the  nature,  the  influ- 
ences, the  responsibilities,  the  prerogatives,  duties  and  bless- 
ings of  the  Christian  home. 

Any  work  which  contributes  to  this  end  is  worthy  of  our 
high  regard  and  subserves  a  noble  purpose ;  for  it  is  only 
when  the  details  of  home-life  are  given  to  the  public,  that 
proper  interest  in  them  will  be  developed,  and  we  can  hope 
for  a  better  state  of  things  in  this  first  form  of  associated 
life. 

The  following  work  is  an  humble  contribution  to  this  im- 
portant cause.  It  is  intended  to  excite  interest  in  the  reli- 
gious elements  of  family  life,  and  to  show  that  the  develop- 
ment of  individual  character  and  happiness  in  the  church 
and  state,  in  time  and  in  eternity,  starts  with,  and  depends 


PREFACE.  V 

upon,  home-training  and  nurture.  The  author,  in  presenting 
it  to  the  public,  is  fully  conscious  of  its  many  palpable  imper- 
fections ;  yet,  as  it  is  his  first  effort,  and  as  it  was  prepared 
amid  the  multiplied  perplexities  and  interruptions  of  his  pro- 
fessional  life,  he  confidently  expects  that  it  will  be  received 
with  charitable  consideration.  It  is  now  published  as  an  in- 
troduction to  a  work  on  the  historical  development  of  home, 
to  which  his  attention  has  for  years  been  directed.  If  this 
unassuming  volume  should  be  instrumental  in  the  saving  of 
one  family  from  ruin,  we  shall  feel  ourself  fully  compensated. 

THE  AUTHOR. 

Chambeksburg,  Pa.,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 


__  TAOT.. 

Preface, 3 

CHAPTER   I. 

What  is  the  Christian  Home. — Section  I.:  Home  in  the  Sphere  of 
Nature. — The  Tower  of  Home-Association.  Inadequate  Ideas  of 
Home.  Home  is  a  Divine  Institute.  Its  Highest  Conception.  Def- 
inition of  Home.  Its  Two  fold  Aspect.  As  simply  Physical.  As 
purely  Moral.  Home  in  the  Sphere  of  Natural  Affection.  Home- 
Love.  Home-Ties.  The  Angel-Spirit  of  Home.  Our  Nature  De- 
mands Home.    Home-Sickness.    Conclusion,  .        .        .        .13 

Section  II. :  Home  in  the  Sphere  of  the  Chmrh.—Tho  Heathen  Home. 
Constituent  Klements  of  the  Christian  Home.  Marriage.  Husband 
and  Wife.  Parents  and  Children.  Union  of  the  Members  of  a  Fam- 
ily.   The  Christian  Hume  must  be  Churchly.     How  we  Abuse  it. 

.  Examples  of  True  Homes.     Parental  Neglect.    Address  to  Parents    I 
and  Children.    Home-Meetings  and  Greetings,         .        .        .        .20 

CHAPTER  II. 
Pirn:  Mission  of  the  Christian  Home.— The  Nature  of  this  Mis- 
sion. David.  Joshua.  It  is  Two-fold.  The  Temporal  Well-Being 
of  the  Members.  How  Parents  Abuse  this  part  of  the  Home-Mis- 
sion. The  Eternal  Weil-Being  of  the  Members.  Extent  of  the 
Home-Mission.  Its  Importance  and  Responsibility.  Seen  in  the 
Vicarious  Character  of  Home.  The  Principle  of  Moral  Reproduc- 
tion. The  Visitation  of  Parental  Iniquity  upon  the  Children'.  The 
Guilt  of  Unfaithfulness  to  this  Mission.  Qualifications  for  it.  The 
Law  of  Equality  in  Marriage.  How  Parents  may  Disqualify  them- 
selves for  it.    Incentives  to  Faithfulness.     Address  to  Parents,     .     27 

CHAPTER  III. 

Family  Reeigiox.— The  Christian  Home  Demands  Family  Religion. 
What  is  it?  Different  from  Personal  Religion.  Co-existent  with 
Home.  Essential  to  its  Constitution.  Its  Historical  Development 
from  Eden  to  the  Present  Age.  Its  Present  Neglect.  What  it  In- 
cludes. The  Example  of  our  Primitive  Fathers.  The  Forms  in 
Which  it  is  Developed.  The  Home-Mission  Demands  it.  Its  Ne- 
cessity seen  in  the  Value  of  the  Soul.  Home  without  it.  Homo 
with  it.  Relations  of  Homo  Demand  it.  Reply  to  Excuses  from 
it.  Defect  of  it  now.  Reasons  for  this.  It  is  Implied  in  the  Mar- 
riage Relation  and  Obligation.     Motives  to  Establish  it,        .         .     40 

CHAPTER   IV. 

Tin:  RELATION  of  Home  to  the  Chubch. — It  must  he  Churchly. 
This  Relation  is  Vital  and  Necessary,  involving  Mutual  Depend- 
ence.    Relation  of  Preparation.     Home  Completes  Itself  in  the 


.J 


Vlll  C0NTENT8. 

mam. 

Church.    It  has  Power  only  in  the  Sphere  of  the  Cburch.    This 
Relation  involves  Duties  ami  Responsibilities,     ....        60 

CHAPTER  V. 

Home-Influence. — Home  has  Power.  This  is  cither  a  Curse  or  a 
Blessing.  What  is  Home-Influence?  Its  Character.  Its  Degree 
Estimated  from  the  Force  of  First  Impressions.  Scripture  Testi- 
mony to  it-  Its  Legitimate  Objects.  How  it  Acts  in  the  Form- 
ation of  Character.  Augustine.  Washington.  John  Q.  Adams. 
*•!<••  hop  Hall.  Dr.  Doddridge.  Dr.  Camming.  A  Mother  Won  to 
Christ  by  a  Daughter.  Its  Influence  upon  the  State.  Napoleon. 
Homes  of  the  Revolution.  The  Spartan  Mother  and  Home.  Its 
Influence  upon  the  Church.    Its  Responsibility  Inferred,  .        66 

CHAPTER  VI. 

Home  as  a  Stewardship. — What  is  a  Steward?  Home  is  a  Stew- 
ardship. Parents.  Home-Interests.  Identity  of  Interest  between 
the  Master  aud  Steward.  Mother  of  Moses.  Character  and  Re- 
sponsibilities of  this  Stewardship,  The  Social  Prostitution  of 
Home.  The  Principle  of  Accountability  this  Stewardship  In- 
volves.    The  Final  Settlement, 66 

CHAPTER  VII. 

Responsibilities  of  the  Christian  Home.  —  These  Inferred 
from  Home-Influence  and  Stewardship.  Their  Measure.  By  the 
Magnitude  of  Home  Interest.  By  the  Kind  of  Influence  upon  the 
Members.  By  the  Guilt  and  Punishment  of  Parental  Unfaithful- 
ness. They  are  Incentives  to  Parental  Integrity.  A  Family  Dra- 
ma in  Two  Acts.  Filial  Responsibility.  Address  to  Parents  and 
Children, 74 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

The  Family  Bible! — The  Memories  which  cluster  around  it.  The 
Household  Interests  it  Contains.  The  Bible  as  a  Family  Record. 
As  a  Home-Inheritance,  As  the  Gift  of  a  Mother's  Love.  An  In- 
dispensable Appendage  to  Home.  Its  Adaptation  to  Home.  It 
should  be  Used  as  the  Text-Book  of  Home-Education.  Its  Abuse 
and  Neglect *"  .        .82 

CHAPTER   IX. 

Infancy. — New  Eras  in  Family  History.  The  First-Born.  Charm 
and  Interest  of  Infancy.  The  Infant  as  a  Member  of  Home.  Its 
Emblematic  Character.  Its  Helplessness.  Its  Prophetical  Char- 
acter. The  Trust  and  Responsibility  Involved.  The  Mother's  Re- 
lation to  Infancy.     Address  to  Parents, 92 

CHAPTER   X. 

Home-Dedication. — The  Hebrew  Mother  and  her  Child.  Reasons 
for  Dedication.  Dedication  of  Children.  Abraham.  Offering  of 
Isaac.  Little  Samuel.  David.  Typical  Character  of  Old  Testa- 
ment Family  Offerings.  Benefits  of  Home-Dedication.  Duty  of 
Parents  to  Devote  their  Sous  to  tho  Ministry.  The  Unfaithfulness 
of  Parents  to  this  duty, 108 

"  CHAPTER   XL 

Christian  Baptism. — The  Baptismal  Altar.  It  is  the  Sacrament 
of  Home-Dedication.  Infants  are  its  True  Subjects.  Home  De- 
mands it.  Infant  Baptism  Proven,  by  tha  Child's  Need  of  Salva- 
tion, by  the  Idea  and  Mission  of  Christ,  by  tho  Idea  of  the  Church, 


CONTENTS.  IX 


PAOE. 


by  the  Hereditary  Character  of  Sin,  by  the  Relation  of  Christian 
Parents  to  their  Children,  by  the  Constitution  of  Family  Life.  En- 
emies of  Infant  Baptism.  'Why  Opposed  to  it.  Their  Sophistry. 
Dr.  A.  Carson.  Appeal  to  Parents.  Duty  and  Privilege  of  Parents 
to  have  their  Children  Baptized.  Its  Neglect  and  Abuse.  How 
Abused.  The  Old  Landmarks.  Striking  Statistics.  Abuse  by 
Parents  and  Children, H3 

CHAPTER   XII. 

Christian  Names.— Proper  Kind  of  Names.  Law  of  Correspond- 
ence and  Association.  Christian  Names.  Much  in  a  Name.  Nam- 
ing a  Child  should  not  be  Arbitrary.  Nebuchadnezzar.  Adam. 
The  Hebrews.  Woman.  Eve.  Cain.  Seth.  Samuel.  Dr.Krum- 
macher.  Names  now  Given.  The  Follv  and  Evil  of  it.  W  hy  we 
should  give  Suitable  Names.  Why  Scriptural  Names.  Mary.  In- 
stances of  Proper  Christian  Names, I32 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

Home  as  a  Nursery.— Idea  of  Nursing.  What  a  Nursery  Is.  The 
sense  in  which  Home  is  a  Nursery.  Character  of  the  Home-Nurs- 
ery. The  Mother's  Special  Sphere.  Relation  of  the  Nursery  to 
the  Formation  of  Character.  The  Nursery  is  Physical.  Sickly  and 
Immoral  Nurse9.  Consequences.  It  is  Intellectual.  Its  Abuse.  It 
is  Moral  and  Spiritual.  The  Ways  in  which  the  Nursery  is  Abused. 
Boarding  Schools, *43 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

HoME-STMrATHY.— An  Argument  against  the  Neglect  and  Abuse  of 
the  Nursery.  Its  Natural  Elements.  Its  Definition  and  Nature. 
The  Ancients.  Baptista  Porta.  Plato.  Middle  Ages.  It  is  Passive 
and  Active.  Its  Disease.  Good  Samaritan.  Rousseau.  Robes- 
pierre. Its  Relation  to  Natural  Affection.  Its  Relation  to  Woman. 
Its  Religious  Elements.  Christ.  Ruth.  Joseph.  Mother  of  Sam- 
uel. Peter.  Esther.  Paul.  Family  of  Lazarus.  Its  True  Pat- 
tern. Its  Attractive  Power.  Unfaithfulness  to  its  Law.  Its  High- 
est Element,        .161 

CHAPTER  XV. 

Family  Prayer.— Its  Relation  to  Home-Svmpafhy.  Its  Necessity. 
Its  Idea.  Dr.  Dwight's  View.  The  Duty  to  establish  it  Proven. 
Its  Neglect.    Excuses  from  Family  Prayer.    Address  to  Parents,  16» 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

Home-Edccatiox.— Section  I.:  Tne  Character  cf  ITome-Fducation. 
What  is  Home-Education.  Different  Kinds.  It  must  be  Physical. 
Intellectual.  Moral.  The  Means.  Circumstances.  Temptation. 
Example.  Training.  Habit.  The  Feelings.  Conscience.  Mo- 
tives. Cardinal  Virtues.  When  it  should  Begin.  It  must  be  Re- 
ligious. Necessity  of  this.  St.  Pierre.  The  Mother  as  Teaclier. 
Objections  Considered.  Encouragement  to  Home-Training.  Dr. 
Doddridge.  A  Pious  Minister.  Dr.  Dwight.  Young  Edwards. 
Polycarp.  Timothy.  John  Randolph.  J.  Q.Adams.  Daniel.  The  . 
Power  of  Home-Training  in  Religiun, l'» 

Section  II:  The  Neglect  and  Abuse  of  //.we- /vW^i'oh.— Popular 
Prejudices  Exposed.  Dr.  Johnson.  Edmund  Burke.  Miss  Sedg- 
wic'k.  Everett.  Robert  Hall.  Fruits  of  a  Neglected  Education. 
Law  of  the  Icelanders.  Parents  are  Responsible.  Crates.  Pleas- 
ure of  Teaching  the  Young.    Thompson.    Abuse  of  it.    Fasluon- 

1* 


CONTENTS. 


rAoa. 
ablo  Boarding  Schools.     A  Hopeful  Young  Lady.     How  to  Huin  a 
Son.    Duty  tff  Parents  inferred.    Books.    Bartholin.    Home-Train- 
ing not  isolated  from  Church-Training.     Must  be  Churchly,      ,      195 

CHAPTER   XVII. 

Family  Habits. — Their  Importance.  Their  Idea.  Different  Kinds. 
Their  Formation.  Tobacco  and  Liauor.  Evil  and  Good  Habits. 
Family  Prayer.  Omission  of  Dutv.  Their  Influence.  Kev.  C.  C. 
Colton.  A  Criminal  in  India.  Habit  a9  tiie  interpreter  01  Uharac- 
ter.  Its  Reproductive  Power.  We  are  Responsible  for  our  Habits. 
Christian  Habits.  Habit  of  Industry.  Kutherlord.  Habits  of  Per- 
severance ana  contentment 204 

CHAPTER   XVIII. 

Home-Government. — Home  is  a  Little  Commonwealth.  Includes 
the  Legal  Principle.  Relation  of  Parents  to  Children.  Principle 
of  Home-Government.  Parental  Authority  Threefold.  Schlegel. 
Old  Roman  Law.  A  Divine,  Inalienable  Right.  Extent  of  Parental 
Authority.  False  View  of  it.  Correlative  Relation  between  Filial 
Obedience  and  Parental  Authority.  Character  and  Extent  of  Filial 
Obedience.  Neglect  and  Abuse  of  Home-Government.  Parental 
Indulgence  and  Despotism.  The  True  Medium.  Address  to  Par- 
ents,            ...        213 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

Home-Discipline. — Its  Idea.  Its  Necessity.  False  Systems.  Dis- 
cipline from  the  standpoint  of  Law  without  Love.  Its  Fruits.  A 
Quaint  Anecdote.  The  Europeans.  The  Arabs.  Discipline  from 
the  standpoint  of  Love  without  Law.  Examples.  Eli.  David.  Its 
Fruits.  True  Christian  Discipline.  Chastisement.  A  Model  Sys- 
tem. Abraham.  His  Children.  When  Discipline  should  be  Intro- 
duced. When  it  should  be  Administered.  Importance  of  Parental 
Co-operation.  Favoritism.  Relation  of  Command  to  Chastisement. 
The  Kind  of  Rein  and  Whip.  When  Corporeal  Punishment  should 
be  Used.  Dr.  South.  Dr  Bell.  Its  Adaptation  to  the  Real  Wants 
of  the  Child.  Fidelity  to  Threats  and  Promises.  Examination  of 
Offenses.  Never  Chastise  iu  Anger.  Let  your  Child  know  the  Ob- 
ject of  Discipline, 222 

CHAPTER  XX 

Home-Example.— Its  Idea  and  Influence.  The  Child  is  the  Moral 
Reproduction  of  the  Parent.  Solomon.  Paul.  Shakspeare.  Dr. 
Young.  Its  Necessity  proven  from  its  Relation  to  Precept— Wil- 
liam day;  from  its  Adaptation  to  the  Capacity  and  Imitative  Dis- 

•  position  of  the  Child.  Duty  of  Parents  to  show  a  Model  Example 
to  the  Child.  Archbishop  Tillotson.  Motives  to  this  Duty.  Obsta- 
cles to  the  Efficacy  of  good  Home-Example.  Unequal  Marriages. 
Jacob's  Marriage.     Zacharias  and  Elizabeth,    .        .         .        .  °    '239 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

The  Choice  of  Pursuits.— Duty  of  Preparation  for  some  Useful 
Occupation.  This  should  be  made  in  Childhood.  The  part  Par- 
ents should  take  in  this.  Duty  of  all  Persons  to  engage  in  some 
Useful  Pursuit  shown  from  the  Relation  of  the  Individual  to  the 
State,  from  the  Possibility  of  Future  Misfortune,  from  the  Excess- 
ive Prodigality  of  those  who  have  been  brought  up  in  Idleness. 
Law  of  the  Athenians.  What  Parents  should  consider  in  their  se- 
lection of  an  Occupation  for  their  Children.    Injudicious  Course  of 


CONTENTS.  XI 


TAQX. 

some  Parents.  Fruits  of  Disobedience  to  the  Law  of  Adaptation. 
Social  Position.  Exigencies.  But  one  Pursuit.  Jack  of  All  Trades. 
.Loaferism.    Fruits  of  Indolence, 247 

CHAPTER  XXII. 

The  Homk-Pari.or. — Its  Idea  and  Relations  to  Society.  Why  we 
should  hold  it  Sacred.  The  most  Dangerous  Departments  of  Home. 
Duty  of  Parents  to  instruct  their  Children  in  reference  to  it.  How 
far  the  Christian  Parlor  may  Conform  to  the  Laws  ami  Customs  of 
Fashion.  Adulteration  of  the  Christian  Hume  through  Indiscrimi- 
nate Association.  The  Sad  and  Demoralizing  Eifects.  Address  to 
Parents, 256 

CHAPTER  XXIII. 

Match-Making. — Section  J..-  Tlie  Relation  of  Parents  to  the  Mar- 
rituje  Choice  of  ill vir  Children. — The' Bridal  Hour.  A  Home-Crisis. 
The  Bride's  Farewell.  Hive  Parents  a  right  to  take  any  part  in 
the  Marriage  Choice  of  their  Children?  This  Right  Proven  from 
their  Relation  to  their  Children,  from  the  Inexperience  of  Children, 
from  Sacred  Hi-tory.  The  Patriarchal  Age.  Judaism,  The  Chris- 
tian Church.  The  Extent  of  this  Right.  The  Duties  it  Involves. 
Moral  Control.  Coercive  Measures.  Improper  Parental  Interposi- 
tion. Its  Sad  Effects.  Persuasive  Measures.  Should  Parents  Ban- 
ish and  Disinherit  Children  for  their  Marrying  against  their  will? 
Paley, 265 

Section  If. :  False  Tests  in  the  Selection  of  a  Companion. — The  Mere 
Outward.  How  we  determine  Unhappy  M  itches.  The  Manner 
of  Paving  Addresses.  The  Habit  of  Match  M  iking.  Tricks  of 
Match-Makers.  The  Sad  Fruits.  Book  Match- Makers.  Their 
Auxiliaries.  The  Evil.  How  Parents  may  Preserve  their  Chil- 
dren. False  Influences.  Smitten.  Outward  Beauty.  Impulsive 
Passion.  Falling  in  Love  at  First  Sight.  Wealth.  Rank.  Engl.sh 
Aristocracy.     Nepotism.     Snobbishness,  ....        273 

Section  III.:  True  Tests  in  the  Selection  of  a  Companion. — Judicious 
Views  of  the  Nature  and  Responsibilities  of  the  Marriage  Institu- 
tion. Our  Forefathers.  Reciprocal  Affection.  Paley.  True  Love. 
Adaptation  of  Character  and  Position.  Fitness  of  Circumstances, 
Means,  and  Age.  Religious  Equality  and  Adaptation.  Only  in  the 
Lord.  The  bad  Effect  of  Inequality.  Should  Persons  Marry  Out- 
side of  their  Own  Branch  of  the  Church?  Sin  and  Curse  of  Dis- 
obedience to  the  Law  of  Religious  Equality.  Duty  of  Parents  in 
reference  to  Religious  Equality.  All  Matches  not  made  in  Heaven. 
Law  of  Mo-es.  Abraham.  Historical  Instances  oi  the  Fruits  of 
Disobeying  this  Law.  Reasonableness  of  the  Law.  The  Primitive 
Christians.    Sense  of  the  Christian  Church.    Address  to  Christians,  281 

CHAPTER  XXIV. 

Tin;  CHILDREN'S  Patrimony.— The  Question  this  Involves.  Not 
Confined  to  Wealth.  A  Good  Character  and  Occupation.  True 
Religion.  How  Parents  should  proceed  in  the  Distribution  of  their 
Property.  Why  they  should  give  only  a  Competency.  The  Rules 
to  Determine  a  Competence.  Paley.  What  the  Law  of  Compe-  ' 
tence  Forbids.  Penalties  of  its  Violation.  History.  Impartiality. 
Paley.     The  Infatuation  of  many  Parents,         .        .         .        .     •   292 

CHAPTER   XXV. 

The  Promises  of  the  Christian  Home.—  Two  Kinds.  Divine 
Promises  to  Parents  and  Children.     Those  of  Punishment.     Law 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


of  Reproduction.  Iniquity  of  the  Parents  upon  the  Children.  Prom- 
ises of  Reward.  In  this  Life.  John  Q.  Adams.  In  the  Life  to  Come. 
God's  Fidelity  to  His  Promises.  They  are  Conditional.  When  they 
become  Absolute.  Popular  Objections.  Compatibility  between 
Promises  and  Agencies.    Paul.   Moses.   Promises  made  by  Parents,  303 

CHAPTER   XXVI. 

The  Bereavements  of  Home. — Separation.  Bereavements  Di- 
versified. Reverses  of  Fortune.  Death.  First  Death.  Of  Hus- 
band and  Father.  Of  a  Wife  and  Mother.  Of  Children.  Of  the 
Infant.  Of  the  First-Born.  Wisdom  and  Goodness  of  God  in  Be- 
reavements. Discipline.  Moral  Instruction.  The  Dead  and  Liv- 
ing still  Together.  Benefit.  Death  of  Little  Children  is  a  Kindness 
to  them.  Why.  Why  Christ  became  a  Little  Child.  We  should 
not  wish  them  Back.  Their  Death  is  a  Benefit  to  the  Living. 
Communion  of  Saints.  Ministering  Spirits.  The  Spirit- World. 
A  Ministering  Child.  A  Ministering  Mother.  Infant  Salvation. 
Zuinlius.  Calvin.  Dr.  Junkin.  Newton.  The  Hope  of  Re-union 
in  Heaven.  We  should  not  murmur  against  God.  This  does  not* 
forbid  Godly  Sorrow  and  Tears.    Meekly  Submit,  ,        .        813 

CHAPTER   XXVII. 

The  Memories  of  Home.  —  Chief  Justice  Gibson.  Relation  of 
Memory  to  Bereavement.  Memories  are  Pleasing  and  Painful. 
Pleasing  and  Pious  Memories.  A  Mothers's  Recollection.  The 
Pleasures  of  Remembering  the  Pious  Dead.  Irving.  The  Saving  In- 
fluence of  Memory.  Painful  Memories.  Critical  Power  of  Memory. 
Mementoes  of  Home.  Pictures.  Memorials.  Letters  from  Home. 
Seek  Pleasing  Memories, 348 

CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

The  Antitype  of  the  Christian  Home. — Typical  Relation  be- 
tween Home  and  Heaven.  The  Christian's  Tent  Home  ill  its  Rela- 
tion to  Heaven.  The  Antitypical  Character  of  Heaven.  A  Com- 
parative View  of  our  Earthly  and  our  Heavenly  Home.  Christ  the 
Center  of  Heaven's  Joy  and  Attraction.  Union  between  Home  and 
Heaven.  A  Conscious  Union  of  the  Members  in  Heaven.  Family 
Recognition  and  Love  in  Heaven.     Family  Greeting  and  Joy  in 

.   Heaven.    Longings  after  Heaven.    Conclusion,       .        .        .       360 


CHAPTER  I. 

TTHAT   IS    THE    CHRISTIAN   HOME  f 

SECTION  I. 

HOME    IN    THE    SPHERE  OF    NATURE. 

"  My  home  !  the  spirit  of  its  love  is  breathing 

In  every  wind  that  plays  across  my  track, 
From  its  white  walls  the  very  tendrils  wreathing 

Seem  with  soft  links  to  draw  the  wanderer  back. 
There  am  I  loved — there  prayed  for  ! — there  my  mother 

Sits  by  the  hearth  with  meekly  thoughtful  eye, 
There  my  young  sisters  watch  to  greet  their  brother; 

Soon  their  glad  footsteps  down  the  path  will  fly ! 
And  what  is  home  ?  and  where,  but  with  the  lovin"-  ? 

O 

Home  !  That  name  touches  every  fibre  of  the 
soul,  and  strikes  every  chord  of  the  human  heart 
as  with  angelic  fingers.  jSTothing  but  death  can 
break  its  spell.  What  tender  associations  are 
linked  with  home!  What  pleasing  images  and 
deep  emotions  it  awakens  !  It  calls  up  the  fond- 
est memories  of  life,  and  opens  in  our  nature 


14 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


the  purest,  deepest,  richest  gush  of  consecrated 
thought  and  feeling. 

"  Home  !  'tis  a  blessed  name  !     And  they  who  rove, 

Careless  or  scornful  of  its  pleasant  bonds, 

Nor  gather  round  them  those  linked  soul  to  soul 

By  nature's  fondest  ties, 

But  dream  they're  happy  !" 

But  what  is  home, — home  in  the  sphere  of  na- 
ture? It  is  not  simply  an  ideal  which  feeds  the 
fancy,  nor  the  flimsy  emotion  of  a  sentimental 
heart.  "We  should  seek  for  its  meaning,  not  in 
the  flowery  vales  of  imagination,  but  amid  the 
sober  realities  of  thought  and  of  faith. 

Home  is  not  the  mere  dwelling  place  of  our 
parents,  and  the  theater  upon  which  we  played 
the  part  of  merry  childhood.  It  is  not  simply  a 
habitation.  This  would  identify  it  with  the  lion's 
lair  and  the  eagle's  nest.  It  is  not  the  mere  me- 
chanical juxtaposition  of  so  many  human  beings, 
herding  together  like  animals  in  the  den  or  stall. 
It  is  not  mere  conventionalism, — a  human  asso- 
ciation made  up  of  the  nursery,  the  parlor,  the 
outward  of  domestic  life,  resting  upon  some 
evanescent  passion,  some  sensual  impression  and 
policy.     These  do  not  make  up  the  idea  of  home. 

Home  is  a  divine  institution,  coeval  and  congen- 
ital with  man.  The  first  home  was  in  Eden  ;  the 
last  home  will  be  in  Heaven.  It  is  the  first  form 
of  society,  a  little  commonwealth  in  which  we  first 
lose  our  individualism  and  come  to  the  conscious- 
ness of  our  relation  to  others.      Thus  it  is  the 


HOME  IN  THE  SPHERE  OF  NATURE. 


15 


.  foundation  of  all  our  relationships  in  life, — the 
preparation-state  for  our  position  in  the  State  and 
in  the  Church.  It  is  the  first  form  and  develop- 
ment of  the  associating  principle,  the  normal  rela- 
tion in  which  human  character  first  unfolds  itself. 
It  is  the  first  partnership  of  nature  and  of  life ;  and 
when  it  involves  "the  communion  of  saints,"  it 
reaches  its  highest  form  of  development.  It  is 
an  organic  unity  of  nature  and  of  interest, — the 
moral  center  of  all  those  educational  influences 
which  are  exerted  npon  our  inward  being.  The 
idea  of  the  home-institution  rests  npon  the  true 
love  of  our  moral  nature,  involving  the  marriage 
union  of  congenial  souls,  binding  up  into  itself 
the  whole  of  life,  forming  and  moulding  all  its 
relations,  and  causing  body,  mind  and  spirit  to 
partake  of  a  common  evolution.  The  loving 
soul  is  the  central  fact  of  home.  In  it  the 
inner  life  of  the  members  find  their  true  com- 
plement, and  enjoy  a  kind  of  community  of 
consciousness. 

"  Home's  not  merely  four  square  walls,      * 
Though  with  pictures  hung  and  gilded  ; 
Home  is  where  affection  calls — 
Filled  with  shrines  the  heart  hath  budded." 

Home  may  be  viewed  in  a  twofold  aspect,  as 
simply  physical,  and  as  purely  moral.  The  former 
comes  finally  to  its  full  meaning  and  force  only 
in  the  latter.  They  are  interwoven;  we  cannot 
understand  the  one  without  the  other;  they  are 
complements;  and  the  complete  idea  of  home  tu 


1G  TI1E    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

wc  find  it  in  the  sphere  of  nature,  lies  in  the 
living  union  of  both. 

V>y  the  physical  idea  of  home,  we  mean,  not 
only  its  outward,  mechanical  structure,  made  up 
of  different  parts  and  members,  but  that  living 
whole  or  oneness  into  which  these  parts  are 
bound  up.  Hence  it  is  not  merely  adventitious, 
— a  corporation  of  individual  interests,  but  that 
organic  unity  of  natural  life  and  interest  in  which 
the  members  are  bound  up.  By  the  moral  idea 
of  home,  we  mean  the  union  of  the  moral  life  and 
interests  of  its  members.  This  explodes  the  infi- 
del systems  of  Fourierism,  Socialism,  Mormon- 
ism,  and  "Woman's  Rights."  These  forms  of 
Agrarianism  destroy  the  ethical  idea  and  mission 
of  home ;  for  they  are  not  only  opposed  to  reve- 
lation and  history,  but  violate  the  plainest  maxims 
of  natural  affection. 

Love  is  an  essential  clement  of  home.  "With- 
out this  we  may  have  the  form  of  a  home,  but 
not  its  spirit,  its  beating  heart,  its  true  motive 
power,  and  its  sunshine.  The  inward  stream 
would  be  gone,  and  home  would  not  be  the  one- 
ness of  kindred  souls.  Home-love  is  instinctive, 
and  begets  all  those  silken  chords,  those  sweet 
harmonies,  those  tender  sympathies  and  endear- 
ments which  give  to  the  family  its  magic  power. 
This  home-love  is  the  mother  of  all  home  de- 
lights, yea,  of  all  the  love  of  life.  "We  first  draw 
love  from  our  mother's  breast,  and  it  is  love 
which  ministers  to  our  first  wants.  It  flashes 
from  parent  to  parent,  and  from  parent  to  child, 


HOME   IN   TIIE    SPHERE   OF   NATURE. 


17 


making  up  the  sunshine  and  the  loveliness  of 
domestic  life.  Without  it  home  would  have  no 
meaning.  It  engenders  the  "home-feeling"  and 
the  "home-sickness,"  and  is  the  moral  net- work 
of  the  home-existence  and  economy.  It  is  strong- 
er than  death ;  it  rjses  superior  to  adversity,  and 
towers  in  sublime  beauty  above  the  niggardly 
selfishness  of  the  world.  Misfortune  cannot  sup- 
press it;  enmity  cannot  alienate  it;  temptation 
cannot  enslave  it.  It  is  the  guardian  angel  of  the 
nursery  and  the  sick-bed ;  it  gives  an  affectionate 
concord  to  the  partnership  of  home-life  and  in- 
terest. Circumstances  cannot  modify  it ;  it  ever 
remains  the  same,  to  sweeten  existence,  to  purify 
the  cup  of  life,  to  smooth  our  rugged  pathway 
to  the  grave,  and  to  melt  into  moral  pliability 
the  brittle  nature  of  man.  It  is  the  ministering 
spirit,  of  home,  hovering  in  soothing  caresses 
over  the  cradle  and  the  death-beds  of  the  house- 
hold, and  filling  up  the  urn  of  all  its  sacred 
memories. 

But  home  demands  not  only  such  love,  but  ties, 
tender,  strong,  and  sacred.  These  bind  up  the 
many  in  the  one.  They  arc  the  fibres  of  the 
home-life,  and  cannot  be  wrenched  without  caus- 
ing the  heart  to  bleed  at  every  pore.  Death  may 
dissect  them  and  tear  away  the  objects  around 
which  they  entwine;  and  they  will  still  live  in 
the  imperishable  love  which  survives.  From 
them  proceed  mutual  devotions  and  confiding 
faith.  They  bind  together  in  one  all-expanding 
unity,  the  perogatives  of  the  husband,  and  the 


18 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


subordination  of  the  wife,  the  authority  of  the 
jui rent  and  the  obedience  of  the  child. 

"  0,  not  the  smile  of  other  lands, 

Though  far  and  wide  our  feet  may  roam, 

Can  e'er  untie  the  genial  bands 
That  knit  our  hearts  to  home  !" 

The  mother  is  the  angel-spirit  of  home.  Her 
tender  yearnings  over  the  cradle  of  her  infant 
babe,  her  guardian  care  of  the  child  and  youth, 
and  her  bosom  companionship  with  the  man 
of  her  love  and  choice,  make  her  the  personal 
center  of  the  interests,  the  hopes  and  the  hap- 
piness of  the  family.  Her  love  glows  in  her 
sympathies  and  reigns  in  all  her  thoughts  and 
deeds.  It  never  cools,  never  tires,  never  dreads, 
never  sleeps,  but  ever  glows  and  burns  with 
increasing  ardor,  and  with  sweet  and  holy  in- 
cense upon  the  altar  of  home-devotion.  And 
even  when  she  is  gone  to  her  last  rest,  the 
sainted  mother  in  heaven  sways  a  mightier 
influence  over  her  wayward  husband  or  child, 
than  when  she  was  present.  Her  departed  spirit 
still  Lovers  over  his  affections,  overshadows  his 
path,  and  draws  him  by  unseen  cords  to  herself 
in  heaven. 

Our  nature  demands  home.  It  is  the  first  es- 
sential element  of  our  social  being.  The  whole 
social  system  rests  upon  it :  body,  mind  and 
spirit  are  concerned  in  it.  These  cannot  be 
complete  out  of  the  home-relations  ;  there  would 
be  no  proper  equilibrium  of  life  and  character 


HOME   IN   THE    SPIIERE  OF   NATURE.  19 

without  the  home  feeling  and  influence.  The 
heart,  -when  bereaved  and  disappointed,  naturally 
turns  for  refuge  to  home-life  and  sympathy.  No 
spot  is  so  attractive  to  the  weary  one ;  it  is  the 
heart's  moral  oasis  ;  there  is  a  mother's  watchful 
love,  and  a  father's  sustaining  influence ;  there  is 
,1  husband's  protection,  and  a  wife's  tender  sym- 
pathy; there  is  the  circle  of  loving  brothers  and 
nisters, — happy  in  each  other's  love.  Oh,  what 
fs  life  without  these  ?  A  desolation  !  —  a  pain- 
ful, glooming-  pilgrimage  through  "desert  heaths 
find  barren  sands."  But  home  gives  to  life  its 
fertilizing  dews,  its  budding  hopes,  and  its  blos- 
soming joys.  When  far  away  in  distant  lands 
or  upon  the  ocean's  heaving  breast,  we  pine 
away  and  become  "home-sick;"  no  voice  there 
like  a  mother's ;  no  sympathy  there  like  a 
wife's ;  no  loved  one  there  like  a  child ;  no 
resting  place  there  like  home ;  and  we  cry 
out,   "Home!    sweet,   sweet  home!" 

Thus  our  nature  instinctively  longs  for  the 
deep  love  and  the  true  hearts  of  home.  It  has 
for  our  life  more  satisfaction  than  all  the  honors, 
and  the  riches  and  the  luxuries  of  the  world. 
We  soon  grow  sick  of  these,  and  become  sick 
for  home,  however  humble  it  ma}r  be.  Its  en- 
dearments are  ever  fresh,  as  if  in  the  bursting 
joys  of  their  first  experience.  They  remain  mi- 
forgotten  in  our  memories  and  imperishable  in 
our  hearts.  When  friends  become  cold,  society 
heartless,  and  adversity  frowns  darkly  and  heavily 
upon  us,  oh,  it  is  then  that  we  turn  with  fond  as- 


20  THE  CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

surancc  to  home,  where  loved  ones  will  weep  as 
well  as  rejoice  with.  us. 

"Oh,  the  blessing  of  a  home,  where  old  and  young  mix 
kindly, 

The  young  una  wed,  the  old  unchilled,  in  unreserved  com- 
munion ! 

Oh  that  refuge  from  the  world,  when  a  stricken  son  or 
daughter 

May  seek  with  confidence  of  love,  a  father's  hearth  and 
heart ; 

Come  unto  me,  my  son,  if  men  rebuke  and  mock  thee, 

There  always  shall  be  one  to  bless, — for  I  am  on  thy  side  !" 


SECTION  II. 

nOME   IX    THE    SPHERE   OF    THE   OTORCH. 

"A  holy  home, 
Where  those  who  sought  the  footprints  af  the  Lord, 

Along  the  paths  of  pain,  and  care,  and  e;loom, 
Shall  find  the  rest  of  heaven  a  rich  reward." 

"What  is  the  Christian  home  ?  Only-  in  the 
sphere  of  Christianity  does  the  true  idea  of 
home  become  fully  developed.  Home  with  the 
savage  is  hut  a  herding,  a  servitude.  Even 
among  many  of  the  Jews   it  was   little  h&ttei 


HOME    IN   THE    SPHERE   OF   THE   CHURCH. 


21 


than  a  Mahommedan  seraglio.  The  most  emi- 
nent of  the  heathen  world  degrade  the  family 
by  making  it  the  scene  of  lust,  and  introducing 
concubinage  and  polygamy.  Plato,  one  of  the 
most  enlightened  of  the  heathen,  had  base  con- 
ceptions of  home,  and  abused  its  highest  and 
holiest  prerogatives  by  his  ideas  of  polygamy. 
"We  find  too  that  in  the  ethics  of  Aristotle,  the 
most  loyely  and  sacred  attributes  of  the  family 
are  totally  discarded.  The  home  "\yhich  he  holds 
up  to  view  is  unadorned  with  chastity  and  virtue. 
And  Sophocles  follows  in  the  same  path,  strip- 
ping home  of  all  that  is  sacred  and  essential  to 
its  true  constitution.  And  when  we  come  down 
to  the  present  age,  and  view  this  divine  institute 
in  the  light  of  Mormonism  and  Socialism,  who 
will  say  that  here  we  have  unfolded  its  true  idea 
and  sacred  character? 

How  different  is  the  true  Christian  home ! 
Here  the  marriage  union  is  preserved  "honora- 
ble," held  sacred,  and  woman  is  raised  to  her 
true  position.  In  the  sphere  of  the  Christian 
church,  home  is  brought  fairly  and  completely 
into  view.  Here  it  rises  above  the  measure  of 
natural  affection  and  temporal  interest.  It  en- 
ters the  sphere  of  supernatural  faith,  and  be- 
comes the  adumbration  of  our  home  in  heaven. 

The  Christian  home  is  a  true  type  of  the 
church.  "  The  husband  is  the  head  of  the 
wife,  as  Christ  is  of  the  church."  The  love  of 
the  family  is  self-denying  and  holy,  like  that 
between  Christ  and  His  church.      The  children 


Tin:  christian  HOMB. 

■  the  heritage  of  the  Lord  ;''  the  parents  are. 
rards.  Like  tlif  church,  the  Christian 
home  has  its  ministry.  Yea,  the  church  is  in 
the  home,  aa  the  mother  is  in  her  child.  We 
cannot  Beparate  them  ;  they  are  correlatives. 
The  one  demands  the  other.  The  Christian 
home  can  have  existence  only  in  the  sphere  of 

church.  It  is  the  vestibule  of  the  church, 
bound  to  Imt  by  the  bonds  of  Christian  mar- 
riage, of  holy  baptism,  and  of  the  communion 
of  Baints,  Leading  to  her  in  the  course  of  moral 
development,  and  completing  her  life  only  in 
the  church-consciousness. 

limine  is,  therefore,  a  partnership  of  spiritual 
as  Will  as  of  natural  life.  The  members  thereof 
dwell  "as  being  heirs  together  of  the  grace  of 
life."  "Heavenly  Handedness,"  "the  hidden 
man  of  the  heart,"  and  a  "hope  full  of  immor- 
tality," are  the  ornaments  of  the  Christian  home. 
Bern  is  "the  incorruptibility  of  a  meek  and  quiet 
spiril  ;"'  her  members  are  "joint  heirs  of  salva- 
tion:" they  are  "one,*'  not  only  in  nature,  hut 
"in  Christ."  They  enjoy  a  "communion  in 
spirit. ••  thai  their  "joy  might  he  full."  "What 
God,  therefore,  hath  joined  together,  let  not  man 
put  asunder." 

Buch  a  1m.uk-,  being  "right  with  God,"  must 

full   of  good    fruits,   without    partiality  and 

with. mi  hypocri  Here  the  Christian  shows 

i  haracter.     In  the  sphere  of  the  church, 

family  reaches  its  highest  excellence  and  its 
purest  .  ujoynicnt.     Says  the  learned  D'Aubigne, 


HOME   IN   THE   SPHERE   OF   THE    CHURCH.  23 

"'Without  the  knowledge  and  the  love  of  God,  a 
family  is  but  a  collection  of  individuals  who  may 
have  more  or  less  of  natural  affection  for  one 
another;  but  the  real  bond, — the  love  of  God 
our  Father,  in  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord, — is  want- 
ing." 

We,  therefore,  abuse  the  idea  of  home  when 
we  divest  it  of  the  religious  element.  As  the 
family  is  a  divine  institute  and  a  type  of  the 
church  and  of  heaven,  it  cannot  he  understood 
in  its  isolation  from  Christianity ;  it  must  in- 
volve Christian  principles,  duties,  and  interests; 
and  embrace  in  its  educational  functions,  a  pre- 
paration, not  only  for  the  State,  hut  also  for  the 
church.  The  church  gives  to  home  a  sacred 
religious  ministry,  a  spiritual  calling,  a  divine 
mission ;  investing  it  with  prophetic,  priestly 
and  kingly  prerogatives,  and  laying  it  under 
religious  responsibilities. 

This  gives  to  the  Christian  home  its  true 
meaning,  and.  secures  for  its  members — 

"A  sacred  and  borne-felt  delight, 
A  sober  certainty  of  waking  bliss." 

Such  was  the  home  of  Abraham,  who  "  com- 
manded his  children  and  his  household  to  keep 
the  way  of  the  Lord,  to  do  justice  and  judg- 
ment,"— of  Joshua,  who  with  "his  house  served 
the  Lord," — of  David,  who  "returned  to  bless 
his  household,"  —  of  Job,  who  "offered  burnt- 
offering  according  to  the  number  of  his  sons," 
— of  Cornelius,  who  "feared  God  with  all  his 


n;i 

f 


M  Tin:  CHRI8TIAB   BOMB. 

-of  Lydia,  and  Crispus,  and  the  jailor 
Philippi,  who  "believed  in  the  Lord  with  all 

their  hon 

How  many  Christian  parents  practically  dis- 
thia  attribute  of  home!  While  all  their 
temporal  interests  cluster  around  their  home, 
their  hearts  are  fondly  wedded  to  it  as 
their  retreal  from  a  oold  and  repulsive  world, 
they  never  think  perhaps  that  God  is  in  their 
family,  that  He  has  instituted  it,  and  given  those 
cherished  ones  who  "  set  like  olive  plants  around 
their  table."  They  are  faithful  to  all  natural 
duties,  and  make  ample  provision  for  the  tem- 
poral wants  of  their  offspring ;  the  mother  bends 
with  untiring  assiduity  over  the  cradle  of  licr 
babe,  arid  ministers  to  all  its  wants,  watching 
with  delight  every  opening  beauty  of  that  hud 
"t'  promise,  and  willingly  sacrificing  all  for  its 
With  what  rapture  she  catches  its  first 
pings  •-!'  mother!  The  father  toils  from  year 
to  \<-;tr  to  secure  it  a  lair  patrimony,  a  finished 
education,  ami  an  honorable  position  in  lite. 
unremittingly  these  parents  watch  over 
tie-  sick-bed  of  their  children  and  of  each 
other;  oh,  what   burning  tears  gush  forth 

e  utterance  of  their  agonizing  hearts,  when 
death  threatens  t.>  blight  a  Bingle  hud,  or  lay 
his  cold  hand  upon  a  Bingle  member! 

This   is  all   right,  noble,  and  faithful  to  the. 

natural    elements    of    heme.        Xatural    affection 

Ipnipts    it.   and   it    is  well.      But  if  this   is  all; 

Christian  parent*  and  their  children  are  gov- 


HOME  IN  THE  SPHERE  OF  THE  CHURCH.    25 

erncd  only  by  the  promptings  of  nature ;  if  they 
arc  bound  together  by  no  spiritual  ties  and  in- 
terests and  hopes ;  if  they  are"  not  prompted  by 
faith  to  make  provision  for  the  soul,  and  for 
eternity;  then  we  think  they  have  not  as  yet 
realized  the  deepest  and  holiest  significance  of 
their  home. 

The  Christian  home  demands  the  Christian 
consciousness, — the  sense  of  a  spirit-world  with 
all  its  obligations  and  interests  and  responsibili- 
ties. Oh,  is  it  not  too  often  the  case  that  even 
the  Christian  mother,  while  she  teaches  her  babe 
the  accents  of  her  own  name,  never  thinks  of 
teaching  it  to  lisp  the  name  of  Jesus, — never 
seeks  to  unfold  its  infant  spirit, — never  supplies 
it  with  spiritual  food,  nor  directs  its  soul  to  the 
eternal  world  !  In  the  same  way  the  pious  wife 
neglects  her  impenitent  husband;  and  the  pious 
husband,  his  reckless  wife.  There  is  too  much 
such  dereliction  of  duty  in  the  homes  of  church 
members. 

Our  homes  give  us  an  interest  in,  and  hind  us 
by  peculiar  bonds  to,  the  eternal  world;  those 
loved  ones  who  have  gone  before  ns,  look  down 
from  heaven  npon  those  they  have  left  behind; 
though  absent  from  us  in  body,  their  spirits  arc 
still  with  us;  and  they  come  thronging  upon 
glowing  pinions,  as  ministering  spirits, .to  our 
hearts.  Mother!  that  little  babe  that  perished 
in  your  arms,  hover-  over  thee  now,  and  is  the 
guardian  angel  of  your  heart  and  home.  It 
meets  thee  still!  And  oh,  how  joyful  will  your 
2 


1111.    (  Ili.ISTI.W    HOME. 

g  be  in  heaven !  Children !  the 
t-jiirit   of  your  sainted   mother   Lingers   around 

■  home  to  minister  in  holy  things  to  thee, 
has  l'i'i  you  in  body;  ahe  lies  mouldering 
now  in  the  humid  earth  :  bul  Bhe  is  with  thee  in 
spirit.  Your  home,  dwelling  in  die  sphere  of 
the  church  on  earth,  has  ;i  spiritual  communion 
with  the  sainted  one-,  of  tin'  church  in  heaven. 
Tims,  as  tin'  home-feeling  can   never  be  eradi- 

1.  -'i  the  home-meetings  can  never  be  broken 
up.  Even  the  dead  are  with  lis  there;  their 
may  be  empty,  and  their  tonus  may  no 
longer  move  before  us;  lutf  their  spirits  meet 
with  us,  and  imprint  their  ministrations  upon 
our  hearts.  The  dead  and  the  living  meet  in 
bom 

•■  We  arc  all  here  ! 
Father,  mother, 
Sister,  brother, 
All  who  bold  cadi  other  dear, 

'.  chair  is  filled,  we're  all  at  home! 
■it  her  power, 
And  kind  affection  rule  the  hour — 
We're  all— all  here  I 

— the  dead — though  dead  BO  dear, 

I    ad  memory  to  her  duty  true. 
Brings  back  their  faded  forma  to  view. 
rough  the  misl  of  years, 
BbxOi  wcll-rcincinlicn.l  fad-  appears ; 

their  words,  their  smiles  behold, 

thej    Were  of   Old 


CnAPTER   II. 


HIE   MISSION   OF   THE    CHRISTIAN   TIOME. 


*'  If  in  the  family  thou  art  the  host, 
.Pray  oft,  and  he  mouth  unto  the  rest ; 
Whom  God  hath  made  the  heads  of  families, 
He  hath  made  priests  to  offer  sacrifice." 

!>•  home  is  a  divine  institution,  and  includes 
the  religious  element,  moving  in  the  sphere  of 
nature  and  of  the  church,  then  its  calling  must 
be  of  God;  its  mission  is  divine;  it  is  designed 
ibserve  a  spiritual  purpose;  it  lias  a  souL 
mission.  Thi*  was  the  view  of  David  when  ho 
'^returned  to  bless  Lis  household."  To  him  his 
family  was  a  church  in  miniature,  and  he  its 
priest.  Thus  too  Joshua  felt  that  his  service  of 
God  must  include  family  worship. 

What  then  is  the  mission  of  the  Christian 
home?  It  is  two-fold, — the  temporal  and  eter- 
nal well-being  of  its  members.  It  is  the  mission 
of  home  to  provide  for  the  temporal  well-being 
of  its  members.  They  are  parts  of  one  Lriv;ii 
whole.  Each  must  Beek  the  welfare  of  all  the 
rest.     This  involves  obedience  to  the  law  of  co- 


Tin:  CHBI8T1  US   BOMB. 

special  reference  to  that  pro- 
,i.]i  the  heads  of  families  should  make 
for  the  wants  of  those  who  are  placed  under 
their  protection.  A  the  parenl  sustains  a 
physical,  intellectual  and  moral  relation  to  the 
child,  it  is  his  mission  to  provide  for  its  physical, 
mental  and  moral  wants,  "lie  that  provideth 
not  for  his  own  house  hath  denied  the  faith,  and 
is  worse  than  an  infidel."  Natural  affection  will 
prompt  to  this.  Children  are  in  a  state  of  utter 
helplessness.  The  infant  is  at  the  mercy  of  the 
parent,  [nstincl  impels  the  parent  to  provide  for 
i;~  wants.     Even  the  brute  does  this. 

That  it  is  a  part,  therefore,  of  the  home  mis. 
aion  to  provide  for  the  physical  wants  of  the  de- 
pendents there,  is  very  evident.      T<>  .refuse  to 
fulfill  it  is  a  crime  against  nature     This  pari  of 
the  home-mission  includes  the  education  of  the 
body,   by   properly   unfolding  and   directing   its 
.  and  providing  it  -with  appropriate  nutri- 
ment, raiment  and  shelter.     In  a  word,  we  should 
make  proper  provision  for  the  development  and 
maturity  of  the   physical   life   of  cur  children. 
i-  the  mission  of  the  parenl  until  the  child 
ilo  to  provide  for  itself.     This,  says  Black- 
aton  principle  of  natural  law;"  and.  in 

•  of  I'uih'iid.irt',  is  "an  obligation 
laid  "ii  parents,  not  only  by  nature  herself,  hut 
by  their  own  proper  acl  in  bringing  them  into 
the  world."  The  laws  of  the  land  also  command 
it.  The  <hild  has  a  legal  claim  upon  the  parent 
for  physical  sustenance  and  education. 


ITS    MISSION. 


29 


It  is  another  part  of  the  home-mission  to  pro- 
vide for  the  intellectual  wants  and  welfare  of  the 
child.  Children  have  mind  as  well  as  hody.  The 
former  needs  nourishment  and  training  as  well  as 
the  latter.  Hence  it  is  as  much  the  mission  of 
the  family  to  minister  to  the  well-being  of  the 
mind  of  the  child,  as  to  that  of  its  hody.  Civil 
law  enforces  this.  Children  have  a  legal  as  well 
as  a  natural  claim  to  mental  culture.  In  a  word, 
it  is  the  home-mission  to  provide  for  the  child 
all  things  necessary  to  prepare  it  for  a  citizen- 
ship in  the  state. 

Parents  abuse  this  mission  in  two  ways,  either 
when  they  by  their  own  indolence  and  dissipation 
compel  their  children  to  support  them ;  or,  on  the 
other  hand,  when  they  become  the  willing  slaves 
of  their  children,  labor  to  amass  a  fortune  for 
them,  and,  in  the  anticipation  of  that,  permit 
them  to  grow  up  in  ignorance,  idleness,  and 
prodigality,  fit  only  to  abuse  and  spend  the  fruit 
of  parental  servitude.  In  this  way  the  misap- 
plied provision  made  by  parents  often  becomes  a 
curse,  not  only  to  the  members  of  the  family,  but 
to  the  state  and  church. 

Another «part  of  the  home-mission  is,  the  spirit- 
ual and  eternal  well-being  of  its  members.  This 
is  seen  in  the  typical  character  of  the  Christian 
family.  It  is  an  emblem  of  the  church  and  of 
licav.ii.    According  to  this,  parents  are  called  t<> 

administer  the  means  <.t'  grace  to  their  household, 
to  provide  for  bouI  as  well  as  for  body.  t<>  prepare 
the  child  for  a  true  membership  in  the  church,  as 


Tin:   OHEISTIAB   DOME. 

well  :i<  for  b  citizenship  in  the  state,  to  train  foy 

-.-. .  !1  as  for  earth. 

rents  are  "priests  nnto  their  families,"  and 

the  commission  t<»  act  for  them  as  faithful 

aids  of  God  in  all  things  pertaining  to  their 

everlasting  welfare.     Their  souls,  as  well  as  their 

bodies,  are  committed  to  their  trust,  and  God 

to  them, — 

"Go  norsQ  tin-in  for  the  King  of  Heaven, 
And  IIu  will  pay  thee  hire." 

This  is  their  great  mission,  and  corresponds  with 
the  conception  of  the  Christian  home  as  a  spirit- 
ual nursery.  The  family  is  "God's  husbandry  ;" 
and  this  implies  a  spiritual  culture.  As  its  mem- 
dwell  as  *.' being  heirs  together  of  the  grace 
of  life,"  it  ia  th»-  function  of  each  to  labor  to 
make  all  the  resl  "fellow-citizens  with  the  saints, 
and  of  the  household  of  God."'  Parents  should 
ide  for  the  religious  wants  of  their  chil- 
dren. Mere  physical  maintenance  and  mental 
culture  cannot  supersede  the  necessity  of  spirit- 
ual training.  Children  have  a  right  to  such 
training. 

This  religlOUS  provision  is  twofold;   their  moral 

and  spiritual  faculties  should  be  developed;  and 
their  moral  nature  supplied  with  appropriate  nu- 
triment All  the  wants  of  their  moral  nature  are 
to  be  faithfully  provided  for.  The  home-mission 
involves  the  business  of  education  of  body,  of 

mind,    ami    of    spirit;  —  of    preparation    for    the. 
•    for   the   church,  for  eternity.     It   is   this 


ITS   MISSION.  31 

which  makes  it  so  sacred  and  responsible.  Strip 
the  Christian  family  of  its  mission  as  a  nursery 
for  the  soul ;  wrest  from  the  parents  their  high 
prerogative  as  stewards  of  God;  and  you  hea- 
thenize home,  yea,  you  brutalize  it !  Tell  me, 
what  Christian  home  can  accomplish  its  holy 
mission,  when  the  soul  is  neglected,  when  reli- 
gion is  left  out  of  view,  when  training  up  for  God 
is  abandoned,  when  the  church  is  repudiated,  and 
eternity  east  off?  You  may  provide  for  the  body 
and  mind  of  your  children  ;  you  may  amass  for 
them  a  fortune ;  you  may  give  them  an  accom- 
plished education  ;  you  may  introduce  them  into 
the  best  society;  you  may  establish  them  in  the 
best  business ;  you  may  fit  them  for  an  honor- 
able and  responsible  position  in  life;  you  may 
be  careful  of  their  health  and  reputation  ;  and 
you  may  caress  them  with  all  the  tender  ardor 
of  the  parental  heart  and  hand ;  yet  if  you  pro- 
vide not  for  their  souls ;  if  you  seek  not  their 
salvation;  if  you  minister  only  to  their  tempo- 
ral, and  not  to  their  eternal  welfare,  all  will  be 
vain,  yea,  a  curse  both  to  you  and  to  them. 
Husband  and  wife  may  love  each  other,  and 
live  together  in  all  the  peace  and  harmony  of 
reciprocated  affection;  yet  if  the  religious  part 
of  their  home-mission  remain  unfulfilled,  iluir 
family  is  divested  of  its  noblest  attraction  ;  its 
greatest  interests  will  fall  into  ruin;  its  high- 
est destiny  will  not  be  attained;  and  soon  its 
fruits  will  be  entombed  in  oblivion;  while  their 
children,  neglected  and  perishing,  will  look  back 


T1IL    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


that  home  with  a  bitterness  of  spirit  which 
tin-  world  can  neither  Boothe  nor  extract ! 

Sow  many  such  homes  there  are!  Even  the 
homes  of  church  members  are  too  often  reckless 
of  theii  high  vocation  Their  moral  stewardship 
La  neglected;  their  dedications,  formal  and  heart- 
s'" prayers  are  heard;  no  bible  read;  no 
instructions  jive\i;  no  pious  examples  Bet;  no 
holy  discipline  exercised.  Their  interests,  their 
hopes  and  their  enjoyments;  their  education, 
their  labor  and  their  rest,  are  all  of  the  world, 
— worldly.  The  curse  of  God  is  upon  Buch  a 
horn 

The  importance  and  responsibility  of  the  home- 
mission  may  be  seen  in  its  vicarious  character,  and 
in  it-  influence  upon  the  members.  The  princi- 
ple of  moral  reproduction  is  manifest  in  all  the 
home-relations.  Whal  the  parent  docs  is  repro- 
duced, aa  i1  were,  in  the  child,  and  will  tell  npon 
the  generations  that  follow  them.  Those  close 
affinities  by  which  all  the  members  are  allied,  give 
oh  a  moulding  influence  over  all  the  rest. 
The  parents  live,  not  for  themselves  alone,  hut 
for  their  children,  and  tin-  consequence  of  such  a 
life  is  also  entailed  npon  their  dflfepring.  "The 
iniquity  of  the  fathers  shall  be  visited  upon  the 
children  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generation." 
If  'he   p  ,,\V  to  the  flesh,"  the  child,  with 

him.  "shall  of  the  flesh  reap  corruption ;"  hut  if 
1"-  "so*  to  the  Bpirit,"  his  offepring,  with  him, 
shall  "of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlasting." 

i    and    profane    history   proves  and    illus- 


ITS   MISSION.  33 

trates  this  groat  truth.  Did  not  God  punish 
the  first  born  of  Israel,  because  their  fathers  had 
Mimed  ?  And  is  it  not  a  matter  of  daily  observa- 
tion that  the  wickedness  of  the  parent  is  entailed 
upon  the  child  ?  Such  is  indeed  the  affinity  be- 
tween them  that  the  child  cannot,  unless  by  some 
special  interposition  of  Providence,  escape  the 
curse  of  a  parent's  sin.  "If  one  member  suffer, 
all  the  members  suffer  with  it." 

The  guilt  and  condemnation  of  unfaithfulness 
to  the  home-mission  may  be  inferred  from  its 
importance  and  responsibility*  Those  who  are 
unfaithful  are  guilty  of  "blood."  We  see  the 
curse  of  such  neglect  in  that  deterioration  of 
character  which  so  rapidly  succeeds  parental  de- 
linquency. They  must  answer  before  God  for 
the  loss  which  the  soul,  the  state,  and  the  church 
sustain  thereby.  "It  shall  be  more  tolerable  for 
Sodom  and  Gomorrah  in  the  day  of  judgment 
than  for  them." 

The  Christian  home  should  be  qualified  for 
this  mission.  There  can  be  no  such  qualifica- 
tion, however,  where  the  marriage  alliance  in- 
volves inequality — one  of  the  parents  a  Christian, 
the  other  not;  for  they  cannot  "dwell  together 
as  heirs  of  the  grace  of  life,"  neither  can  they 
effectually  dispense  that  grace  to  their  offspring. 
When  thus  "the  house  is  divided  against  its. 'If, 
it  must  fall."  "Be  ye  not,  therefore,  unequally 
yoked  together."  If  one  draws  heavenward  and 
the  other  hellward,  there  will  be  a  halting  be- 
tween Baal  and  God,  and  the  influence  of  the 
*2 


Tin:   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


will  be  counteracted  by  that  of  the  other. 
"What  communion   hath   light  with  dark: 
What   fellowship    hath    righteousness   with   un- 
righteou  What    part   hath   he   that    be- 

lieveth  with  an  infidel?"  Thus  divided,  their 
home  will  beunfitfor  its  high  vocation.  Hence 
parents,  in  their  marriage  alliance  as  well  as  in 
their  individual  character,  should  qualify  them- 
selves for  the  responsible  mis-ion  of  homo.  Can 
tin-  ungodly  wile  or  husband  fulfil]  this  mission? 
Can  the  irreligious  parent  bring  up  his  offspring 
"in  tin-  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord  '.'" 

Many  parents  disqualify  themselves  for  their 
home-mission   by  devoting  too  much   attention 
to  Bociety, — by  spending  more   time  abroad,  at 
.  theaters  and   masquerade   halls,  in   gos- 
siping and   recreation,  than  at  home  with  each 

!•  and  with   their  children.      They  commit 

their  children,  with  all  the  family  interests,  to 

and  servants.     They  regard  their  offspring 

lere  playthings  to  hi-  dandled  upon  the  knee, 

brought  Qp  like  calves  in  the  stall,  and  then 
turned  out    to  shape   their  own   destiny. 

This  is  a  sad  mistake!    There  is  no  substitute 

for  home, — no  transfer  of  a  parent's  commission, 

tnpensution    for    a    parent's    loss. 

an    effectually  take   the   parent's   place. 

it  influence  is  overwhelming  and  absolute. 

"With  what  a  kingly  power  their  lovo 

fountains  of  the  new-born  mind  I" 

the    dark    villainies    which    have    dis- 


ITS    MISSION. 


35 


graced  humanity  can  neutralize  it.  Gray-haired 
and  demon  guilt  will  Weep  in  his  dismal  cell  over 
the  melting,  soothing  memories  of  home.  Their 
impressions  are  indelible,  "like  the  deep  borings 
into  the  flinty  rock."  To  erase  them  we  must 
remove  every  strata  of  their  being.  They  give 
texture  and  coloring  to  the  whole  woof  and  web 
of  the  child's  character.  The  mother  especially 
preoccupies  the  unwritten  page  of  its  being,  and 
mingles  with  it  in  its  cradle  dreams,  making  thus 
a  deathless  impress  upon  its  soul. 

"  The  mother  in  her  office,  holds  the  key 

Of  the  soul;  and  she  it  is  who  stamps  the  coin 

Of  character,  and  makes  the  being  who  would  be  a  savage 

But  for  her  cares,  a  Christian  man  !" 

What  a  folly  and  a  sin,  therefore,  for  Christian 
parents  to  give  over  their  holy  mission  to  another, 
while  they  immerse  themselves  in  the  forbidden 
pleasures  and  recreations  of  the  world!  Oh,  if 
you  are  loving,  faithful  parents,  3^011  will  love  the 
societ}'  of  your  household  more  than  the  fash- 
ions and  the  fashionable  resorts  of  the  world; 
you  will  not  substitute  the  "nurse"  and  the 
"boarding  school"  for  the  more  efficient  minis- 
trations of  the  Christian  home. 


"  If  ye  count  society  for  past  time, — what  happier  recreation 

than  a  nursling, 
Its  winning  ways,  its  prattling  tongue,  ita  innocence  and  mirth? 
If  ye  count  BOciety  for  pood. — how  fair  a  field  is  here, 
To  guide  these  souls  to  God,  and  multiply  thyself  in  heaven  I" 


Tin:   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


"  Walk,    therefore,    worthy    of    the    vocation 
rcwith  ye  are  called,  with  all  lowliness  and 
"  Magnify  your  office."      Be  feith- 
ful  i"  your  home-mission.     Draw  yonr  pleasure 
from    it.      Souls  are    committed    to   your   trust 
and   hang    upon    your   hire.     Your    regard   for 
temporal  and  eternal  welfare  of  your  chil- 
dren should  prompt  you  to  faithfulness  to  the 
holy  mission   of  your  family.      You  love  your 
children,   and   desire    their   welfare   and    happi- 
Bul   do  what  you  -will  for  them,  if  you 
are   unfaithful    to   their  souls,  you   wresl    from 
them   tli<'   means   of  safety  and   oi    happiness; 
you  aid  in  their  misery  in  this  and  in  the  world 
ome.      You    are   more   cruel    to    them    than 
was    Herod   who  slew  the   bodies  of  children. 

You     murder     their    souls.       lie.    murdered     me 

children  of  others;  you  murder  your  own; 
he  employed  others  to  do  it   for  him;   you  do 

the   work   'A'   slaughter  yourself!       If,  then,  you 

love  your  children;  if  their  souls  are  commit- 
if  your  unfaithfulness  to  them  may 
result  in  their  ruin;  if  God  blesses  the  holy 
mission  of  your  home  to  their  temporal  and 
rnal  welfare;  if  its  fulfillment  by  you  be 
"like  words  Bpoken  in  a  whispering  gallery, 
which  will   be  heard  at   the  distance  of  years, 

and    echoed   along    the    corridors    of  aires  yet    to 

come;"    and   if   it    will    prove    to   them   in   life 

like  the  lone  star  to  the  mariner  upon  the  dark 
and  stormy  sea,— should  you  not  be  faithful  to 
your  home-vocation ! 


ITS    MISSION. 


37 


Not  only  so,  but  your  regard  for  your  own 
comfort  and  happiness  here  and  hereafter  should 
impel  yon  to  this  faithfulness.  Do  you  love 
yourself?  Do  you  regard  your  own  comfort 
and  welfare?  Would  yon  avoid  painful  solici- 
tude, hitter  reflection,  heart-burning  remorse, 
dreadful  foreboding?  Then  he  faithful  to  the 
home-mission.  If  yon  are,  God  will  bless  you 
for  it  through  your  children.  What  a  comfort 
it  will  he  to  3*011  to  see  them  become  Christians, 
enter  the  church,  and,  at  their  side  around  the 
Lord's  Table,  hold  communion  with  them  in  the 
joys  of  faith  and  in  the  anticipations  of  heaven  ! 
And  should  God  remove  them  from  you  by  death, 
you  will  be  cheered  amidst  the  agonies  of  separa- 
tion by  their  dying  consolation.  The  hope  of  a 
speedy  reunion  with  them  in  heaven  would  afford 
a  sweet  solace  to  your  bereaved  heart. 

Or  should  you  he  taken  before  them,  what  a 
comfort  would  they  afford  you  in  your  last  mo- 
ments! With  the  glow  of  rliristian  faith  and 
hope,  they  would  whisper  to  you  the  consola- 
tions of  the  gospel,  and  bless  you  tor  your. faith- 
fulness to  them.  And  when  you  and  they  shall 
meet  at  the  bar  of  God,  they  will  rise  up  and 
call  you  blessed. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  should  you  neglect 
them  :  and,  as  a  consequence,  they  grow  up  in 
wickedness  and  crime;  oh,  what  a  source  of 
withering  remorse  they  would  cause  you!  No 
sin  more  heavily  punishes  the  guilty,  and  min- 
gles for  him  a  more  hitter  cup,  than  thu  sin  of 


Tlin   0HBI8TIAB    HOME. 


lect  wiiat  if  after  the  lapse  of  a 
Lected  child  be  taken  from  you, 
and  consigned  to  the  cold  grave,  think  you  not  that 
when  you  meet  it  before  the  bar  of  God,  it  will  rise 
op  as  b  witness  against  you,  and  pour  down  its 
curses  apon  your  head  ! 

B  ;t  Buppose  that  child  grows  up,  onprovided 
for  by  you  in  its  early  life;  and  profligacy  mark 
pathway,  and  demon  iruilt  throw  its  chains 
around  him  in  the  prison  cell :  and  he  trace  back 
the  heiri lining  of  his  ruin  to  your  nnfaithfulness, 
oh,  with  what  pungency  would  the  reflection 
id  the  pang  of  remorse  to  your  soul! 

••  <;.>  ask  that  musing  fisher,  why  yon  grave 
Si.  narrow,  and  bo  noteless,  might  not  close 

Without  a  tear".'" 

r.    suae  of  the  bitter  and  heart-stricken  memo- 
of  a  neglected,  ruined  child  that  Blumbers 
thi  ■ 

Or  suppose  that  you   die  before  your  neg- 
I  children,  think  you    not   thai    the  recol- 
lection Of  your  pasl  parental  nnfaithfulness  will 
plant    thorns  in  your  pillow,  and   invest   with 
of  horror  your  descenl    to  tlie 
dark    valley   of   death?     And    oh,    when    you 
■    them    before    the    bar   of    the   avenging 
jud.  fearful     will     he     your     interview 

Tell  me,  how  will  you  dare  to 
meet  them  there,  when  the  voice  of  their 
blood  will  cry  out  from  the  hallowed  ground 
o|  Loin.-  against   you!      And  then,  eternity,  oh, 


IT£   MISSION. 


39 


eternity !  who  shall  bring  out  from  the  secrets 
of  the  eternal  world,  those  awful  maledictions 
which  God  has  attached  to  parental  unfaithful- 
ness? 

Provide,  therefore,  for  your  family  as  the 
Lord  commands.  Remember  that  if  you  do 
not,  you  "  deny  the  faith  and  arc  worse  than 
an  infidel;"  and  in  the  day  of  Judgment  "it 
shall  be  more  tolerable  for  Sodoku  and  Gomor 
rah  than  for  ycu." 


CHAPTER  III. 


FAMILY    RELIGION. 


"  Lo !  where  yon  cottage  whitens  through  tho  green, 
The  loveliest  feature  of  a  matchless  scene ; 
Beneath  its  shading  elm,  with  pious  fear, 
An  aged  mother  draws  her  children  near. 
While  from  the  Holy  Word,  with  earnest  air, 
She  teaches  them  the  privilege  of  prayer. 
Look  I   how  their  infant  eyes  with  rapture  speak; 
Mark  the  flushed  lily  on  the  dimpled  check  ; 
Theil  hearts  are  tilled  with  gratitude  and  love, 
Their  hopes  are  centered  in  a  world  above  I" 

'Pin:  Christian  home  demands  a  family  reli- 
gion. This  makes  it  a  "household  of  God." 
With.. ut  this  it  is  but'a  "den  of  thieves."  It 
is  "  tin-  one  tiling  needful." 

\Vli;it  is  "family  religion^"  It  is  not  an  ex- 
oti*\  hut  is  indigenous  to  the  Christian  home. 
It  if  H"t  :i  "  new  measure,"  hut  an  essential  in- 
prrf'dient  of  the  home-constitution, — coexistent 
with   home   itself.      The  first  family  "began  to 


FAMILY   RELIGION.  41 

call  upon  the  name  of  the  Lord;"  the  first  parent 
acted  as  high-priest  of  God  in  his  family. 

It  is  not  individual  piety  as  such,  not  simply 
closet  devotion,  hut  family  service  of  God, — reli- 
gion taken  up  in  the  home-consciousness  and  life. 
Hence  a  family,  and  not  simply  a  personal  reli- 
gion. 

Such  religion,  we  say,  is  as  old  as  the  church. 
We  find  it  in  Eden,  in  the  tents  of  the  patri- 
archs and  in  the  wilderness  of  the  prophets. 
We  find  it  in  the  tent  of  Abraham  in  the 
plains  of  Mamre,  in  the  "house"  of  Moses,  in 
the  "service"  of  Joshua,  in  the  "offerings" 
of  Job,  and  in  the  palace  of  David  and  Solo- 
mon. It  is  also  a  prominent  feature  of  the 
gospel  economy.  The  commendation  bestowed 
by  Paul  upon  Timothy,  was  that  "from  a  child" 
he  enjoyed  the  "unfeigned  faith"  of  his  mother 
Eunice  and  his  grandmother  Lois.  Paul  exhorts 
Christians  thus:  "Rule  well  your  own  houses; 
speaking  to  yourselves  in  psalms  and  hymns  and 
spiritual  songs."  The  same  family  religion  was 
a  prominent  feature  of  the  homes  of  the  primi- 
tive Christians.  With  them,  every  house  was  a 
sanctuary,  and  every  parent  a  minister  in  holy 
things  to  its  members.  The  bible  was  not  only  a 
parlor  ornament,  but  a  lamp  to  their  feet  and  a 
guide  to  their  path,  used,  meditated  upon,  prayed 
over.  Says  Turtullian  of  its  members,  "They 
are  united  in  spirit  and  in  flesh  :  they  kneel  down 
together;  they  pray  and  fasl  together;  they  teach, 
exhort  and  support  each  other  with  gentleness." 


}J  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

Sow,  alas!  have  Christian  homes  degener- 
ated Bince  then  in  family  piety!  They  received 
a  reviving  impulse  in  the  Reformation;  yet  even 
this  was  meteor-like,  and  Beemed  but  the  tran- 
sient glow  of  some  mere  natural  emotion.  The 
fire  which  then  flashed  bo  brilliantly  upon  the 
altar  of  home,  has  now  become  taper-like  and 
sepulchral;  and  the  altar  of  family  religion,  like 
the  altar  of  Jehovah  upon  Mt.  Carmel,  has  been 
demolished  and  forsaken.      Only  here  and  there 

do  we  find  a  Christian  home  erect  and  surround 
a   Christian  altar.      Parents  seem   now  ashamed 

jerve  the  Lord  at  home.  They  have  neither 
time  nor  inclination.  Upon  the  snhject  of  reli- 
gion they  maintain  a  bashful,  sullen,  wonderful 
Bilence  before  their  families.  They  seem  to  bo 
impressed  with  the  strange  idea  that  their  wives 
and  children  put  no  confidence  in  their  piety, 
(and  may  they  not  have  reason  for  it?)  and  that 
it  would,  therefore,  be  vain  for  them  to  pray,  or 
exhort  their  households.  "Many  walk  thus," 
Paul,  "of  whom  I  have  told  you  often,  and 
now  tell  yon  even  weeping,  that  they  are  the 
enemies  of  the  cross  of  Christ  !"  Upon  them 
shall  he  answered  the  prayer  of  Jeremiah,  "Oh 
i.  pour  out  thy  fury  upon  the  families  that 
call  not   upon  thy  name  !" 

Thus,  therefore,  we  see  that  the  Christian 
home  demands  a  family  religion.  The  private 
devotion  of  the  individual  can  bo  no  effectual 
substitute  for  it. 


FAMILY   RELIGION.  43 

"  The  parents  pair  their  secret  homage, 
And  offer  up  to  heaven  the  warm  request, 
That  He  who  stills  the  raven's  clamorous*  nest, 

And  decks  the  lily  fair  in  flowery  pride, 
Would,  in  the  way  His  wisdom  sees  the  best, 

For  them  and  for  their  little  ones  provide." 

Family  religion  includes  parental  bible  instruc- 
tion, family  prayer,  and  religious  education,  gov- 
ernment, discipline  and  example.  These  involve 
the  parent's  position  in  his  household  as  a  prophet, 
priest,  and  king.  "  Thou  shalt  teach  my  words 
diligently  unto  thy  children,  and  talk  of  them 
when  thou  sittest  in  thy  house." 

"  Daily  let  part  of  Holy  Writ  be  read, 
Let  as  the  body,  so  the  soul  have  bread. 
For  look  !  how  many  souls  in  thy  house  be, 
With  just  as  many  souls  God  trusteth  thee  !" 

Thus  felt  and  acted  our  primitive  fathers.  Bj 
every  winning  art,  they  sought  to  fill  their  chih 
dren  with  the  knowledge  of  God's  Word.  The 
entire  range  of  nursery  instruction  and  amuse- 
ment was  comprised  in  scripture  pictures  and 
hieroglyphics.  They  intermingled  religion  with 
all  their  home  pursuits,  and  entwined  it  with 
their  earliest  and  purest  associations  of  child- 
hood. If  Christian  parents  would  follow  their 
example  now,  in  these  days  of  parental  delin- 
quency, we  would  not  behold  so  many  of  their 
children  grow  up  in  religious  ignorance  and  in- 
difference. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  family  altar  and 


44  Tin:  CHBISTIAB   B0MJL 

A   prayerleaa  family  ia  an  irreligious, 

family.     Says  Eenry,  "They  who  daily 

in  their  houaea  do  well;  they  that  not  only 

.  but  read  the  scriptures,  do  better ;  bul  they 

do  best  "t'  all,  who  not  only  pray  and  read  the 

scriptures,  but  Bing  the  praises  of  God." 

Besides,  the  religion  of  home  implies  that  we 

mmand  our  children  and  household  to  keep 

the  way  of  the  Lord,"  —  that  we  "bring  them 

up  iu  His  nurture  and  admonition,"  and  "train 

them  upas  He  would  have  them  go;"  and  that 

in  things  pertaining  to  their  spiritual  welfare  we 

iu  and  out  "  before  them  as  their  pattern 

and  example,  bidding  them  to  "follow  us  oven 

e  follow  Christ,"  and  Living  in  their  midst  as 

"the  Living  epistles  of  Christ,  known  and  read" 

of  them  all. 

oily  religion  must  "show  itself  by  its  works" 
aristian 'charity  and  benevolence  to  the  poor, 
<-k  and  the  distressed.     We  should  "  lav  by  " 
tain  amount  each  year  of  what  God  bestows, 
for  the  Bupport  <»t'  the  church  and  the  propagation 
<>!'  the  gospel.      Oh,  how  little  do  Christians  now 
benevolent  objects!    A  penurious, 
fisted,  selfish   home  cannot   he  a   religious 
household.      Family  religion  must   he  reproduc- 
must  return  to  God  as  well  as  receive  from 
Him.     But  a-  these  characteristic  features  of  the 
Christian  home  will  be  considered  hereafter,  we 
thai!  not  enlarge  upon  them  here.    Suffice  it  to 
■  iiat  the  mission  of  home  demands  family  reli- 
gion,    [tail  annot  be  secured  without  it 


FAMILY    RELIGION.  45 

Let  our  homes  be  divorced  from  piety,  and  they 
will  become  selfish,  sensual,  unsatisfactory,  and 
unhappy.  Piety  should  always  reign  in  our 
homes,  —  not  only  on  the  Sabbath,  but  during 
the  week;  not  only  in  sickness  and  adversity, 
but  in  health  and  prosperity.  It  must,  if  genu- 
ine, inspire  and  consecrate  the  minutest  interests 
and  employments  o\^  the  household.  It  must  ap- 
pear in  every  scene  and  feeling  and  look,  and  in 
each  heart,  as  the  life,  the  light,  the  hope,  and 
the  joy  of  all  the  members. 

The  necessity  of  Family  religion  is  seen'  in  the 
value  of  the  soul.  The  soul  is  the  dearest  treas- 
ure and  the  most  responsible  trust  of  home. 
What  shall  it  profit  the  family  if  its  members 
gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  their  own  souls? 
What  would  Christian  parents  give  in  exchange 
for  the  souls  of  their  little  ones  ?  Is  it  not  more 
important  that  they  teach  them  to  pray  than  to 
dance,  to  "seek  the  kingdom  of  heaven"  than 
the  enjoyment  of  "  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a 
season?"  Oh,  what  is  home  without  a  title,  to, 
and  personal  meetness  for,  that  kingdom?  It 
is  a  moral  waste;  its  members  move  in  the 
putrid  atmosphere  of  vitiated  feeling  and  mis- 
directed  power.  Brutal  passions  become  domi- 
nant; we  hear  the  stern  voice  of  parental  des- 
potism; we  behold  a  scene  of  filial  strife  and 
insubordination  :  there  is  throughout  a  heart- 
blank.  Domestic  life  becomes  clouded  by  a 
thousand  crosses  and  disappointments;  the  sol- 
emn realities  of  the  eternal   world  are  casl    into 


THE    CHRISTIAN    IIOME. 


ilio  i         :    •       •    ■     -conscience  and  fooling  b<v 
Jtified;  the  Bense  of  mora]  duty  distort- 
ed, and  ;ill  the  brae  interests  of  home  appear  in  ;i 
base.     Natural  affection  is  debased,  and  love  is 
titrated  to  the  base  designs  of  Belf,  and  the 

entire  family,  With  all  its  tender  cords,  ardent 
hopes,  and  promised  interests,  becomes  engulfed 
in  the  VOrtex  <>f  criminal  worldliness  ! 

rorse  the  picture!     See  what  Lome  be- 

-  with  religion  as  its  life  and  rule.  Human 
nature  is  there  cheeked  and  moulded  by  the  ami- 
able spirit  and  lovely  character  of  Jesus.  The 
mind  is  expanded,  the  heart  softened,  sentiments 
refined,  passions  subdued,  hopes  elevated,  pur- 

-  ennobled,  the  world  east  into  the  shade, 
and  heaven  realized  as  the  first  prize.     The  great 
want  of  OUT  intellectual  and  moral  nature  is  here 
met,  and  home  education  becomes  impregnated 
with  the  spirit  and  elements  of  our  preparation 
ternity. 
Tin-  relation--  of  home  demand  family  religion. 
re  relations  of  mutual   dependence,  in- 
volving such  close  affinity  that  tin-  good  or  evil 
which  befalls  one  member  must  in  some  degree 
■1  to  all  the  other  members.    They  involve 
pa."     Each  member  becomes  an  instrument 
in    the   salvation   or   damnation   of  the  others. 

-  what    knowest,  ()  wife,  whether  thou  shalt 
thy  husband  ?  or  how  knowest  thou,  O  man, 

whether  thou  sh.dt  Bave  thy  wife?" — 1  Cor.  vii., 
i,;-  '•  [f  one  member  suffer,  all  the  members 
BUflB  r  with  it."'     They  stimulate  cadi  other  either 


FAMILY   RELIGION.  47 

to  salvation  or  to  ruin ;  and  hence  those  children 
that  go  to  ruin  in  consequence  of  parental  un- 
faithfulness, will  "curse  the  father  that  begat 
them,  the  womb  that  bare  them,"  and  the  day 
they  entered  their  home. 

Many  parents  seek  to  excuse  themselves  from 
the  practice  of  family  religion,  upon  the  ground 
that  they  have  not  the  capacity  nor  the  time.  If 
so,  you  should  not  have  married.  But  if  you  are 
Christians,  you  have  the  capacity,  and  you  will 
take  the  time. 

But  some  are  ashamed  to  begin  family  religion. 
Ashamed  of  what?  of  your  piety?  of  your  chil- 
dren ?  of  the  true  glory  and  greatness  of  your 
home  ?  Then  you  are  ashamed  of  Jesus  !  You 
should  rather  blush  that  you  have  not  begun  this 
good  work. 

The  great  defect  of  family  religion  in  the  pres- 
ent day  is,  that  it  is  not  educational.  Parents 
wait  until  their  children  have  grown  up,  and 
established  habits  of  sin,  when  they  suppose  that 
the  efforts  of  some  "protracted  meeting"  will 
compensate  for  their  neglect  in  childhood.  They 
overlook  the  command  of  God  to  teach  them 
His  words.  The  influence  of  this  defect  and  de- 
lusion has  been  most  destructive.  Many  Chris- 
tian homes  an-  n<>w  altogether  destitute  of  reli- 
gious appliances.  If  the  angel  that  visited  the 
lmmes  of  Israel  were  to  visit  the  Christian  homes 
of  this  age,  would  he  not  be  tempted  to  say,  as 
Abraham  said  to  Ahiinelech,  "Surely  the  fear  of 
God  is  not  in  this  place  !" 


|8  TIN-:    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

One  great  reason,  perhaps,  why  there  are  so 
many  Buch  homes  is,  that  there  arc  now  so  many 
irreligious  marriages,  where  husband  and  wife  are 
"  unequally  yoked  together,"  one  a  believer  and 
the  other  not  "How  can  two  walk  together  ex- 
cept they  be  agreed?"  Can  there  be  family  reli- 
gion when  husband  and  wife  arc  traveling  to 
eternity  in  opposite  roads?  No!  There  will  be 
hindrances  instead  of  '-helps."  If  they  marry 
nol  "in  the  Lord,"  religion  will  not  be  in  their 
home,  Says  the  pious  Jay,  "I  am  persuaded 
that  it  is  very  much  owing  to  the  prevalence  of 
these  indiscriminate  and  unhallowed  connections, 
that  we  have  fallen  so  far  short  of  those  men  of 
God,  who  are  gone  before  us,  in  the  discharge  of 
family  worship,  and  in  the  training  up  of  our 
households  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the 
Lord." 

Family  religion  is  implied  in  the  marriage  rela- 
tion and  obligation.  It  is  included  in  the  necessi- 
ties of  our  children,  and  in  the  covenant  promises 
of  God.  The  penalties  of  its  neglect,  and  the  re- 
wards of  our  faithfulness  to  it,  should  prompt  us 
to  its  establishment  in  our  homes.  Its  absence  is 
a  curse;  its  presences  blessing.  It  is  a  foretaste 
of  heaven.  Like  manna,  it  will  feed  our  souls, 
quench  our  thirst,  Bweeten  the  cup  of  life,  and 
Bhed  a  halo  of  glory  and  of  gladness  around  our 
fin  sides.  Let  yours,  therefore,  be  the  religious 
home  :  and  then  be  bum  that  God  will  delight  to 
i  therein,  and  His  blessing  will  descend,  like 
if    dews  of  heaven,  upon  it.     Your  children  shall 


FAMILY    RELIGION. 


49 


"not  be  found  begging  bread,"  but  shall  be  like 
"olive  plants  around  your  table," — the  "heritage 
of  the  Lord."  Yours  will  be  the  home  of  love 
and  harmony ;  it  shall  have  the  charter  of  family 
rights  and  privileges,  the  ward  of  family  inter- 
ests, the  palladium  of  family  hopes  and  happi- 
ness. Your  household  piety  will  be  the  crowning 
attribute  of  your  peaceful  home, — the  "  crown  of 
living  stars  "  that  shall  adorn  the  night  of  its  trib- 
ulation, and  the  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire  in  its 
pilgrimage  to  a  "better  country."  It  shall  strew 
the  family  threshold  with  the  flowers  of  promise, 
and  enshrine  the  memory  of  loved  ones  gone  be- 
fore, in  all  the  fragrance  of  that  "blessed  hope" 
of  reunion  in  heaven  which  looms  up  from  a 
dying  hour.  It  shall  give  to  the  infant  soul  its 
"perfect  flowering,"  and  expand  it  in  all  the  full- 
ness of  a  generous  love  and  conscious  blessedness, 
making  it  "  lustrous  in  the  livery  of  divine  knowl- 
edge." And  then  in  the  dark  hour  of  home  sepa- 
ration and  bereavement,  when  the  question  is  put 
to  thee,  mourning  parents,  "Is  it  well  with  the 
child  ?  is  it  well  with  thee  ?"  you  can  answer  with 
joy,  "It  is  well  J" 
3 


C HATTER   TV. 

THE    RELATION    OF    HOME    TO    THE    CIIURCII. 

The  Christian  home  sustains  a  direct  relation  to 
the  church.  This  relation  is  similar  to  that  which 
it  sustains  to  the  state.  The  nature  and  mission 
.  f  home  demand  the  church.  The  former  lb  the 
adumbration  of  the  latter.  The  one  is  in  the 
other.  "Greet  the  church  that  is  in  thine  house.'- 
The  church  was  in  the  house  of  Aquila  and  lVis- 
cilla,  in  the  tent  of  Abraham,  and  in  the  palace  of 
David.  It  must  he  in  every  Christian  home,  and 
iristian  home  must  be  in  the  church.  In 
a  word,  our  families  must  he  churehly. 

This  /elation  is  vita!  and  necessary, — a  relation 
of  mutual  dependence.  Tlie  family  is  a  prepara- 
tion for  tli«*  church,  subordinate  to  it,  and  must, 
then  tote,  tlnow  its  influence  in  its  favor,  be 
moulded  by  it,  ami  labor  with  direct  reference 

to  the  church  in  the  way  of  training  up  for  mem- 
hili  '"  "•     &B  the  civil  and  political  relations 
of  home  involve  the  duty  ^<\'  parents  to  train  up 
.    children  for  efficient  citizenship  in  the  state. 


ITS    RELATION   TO    THE    CHURCH. 


so  its  moral  and  religious  relations  involve  the 
duty  of  education  for  the  church.  Hence  the 
Christian  homo  is  ehurchly  in  its  spirit,  religion, 
■education,  influence,  and  mission. 

Family  religion  is  an  element  of  home,  not  only 
as  a  mere  fact  or  principle  in  its  subjective  form, 
but  in  the  form  and  force  of  the  church.  In  its 
unchurchly  form  it  is  powerless.  It  must  be  ex- 
perienced and  administered  in  a  ehurchly  spirit 
and  way,  not  as  something  detached  from  the 
organic  embodiment  of  Christianity.  The  rela- 
tion of  the  church  to  the  family  forbids  this. 
The  church  pervades  all  the  forms  of  society.  It 
includes  the  home  and  the  state.  It  gives  to  each 
[>.><i^i  \ ...«..,».  Legitimate  principles, proper  direc- 
tion, and  a  true  destiny. 

But  home  is  not  only  a  preparation  for  the 
church,  but  completes  itself  in  the  church, — 
never  out  of  the  church.  By  the  "mystery" 
of  marriage  and  the  sacrament  of  holy  baptism, 
home  and  the  church  are  bound  up  into  each 
other  by  indissoluble  bonds.  The  one  receives 
the  mark  and  superscription  of  the  other;  the 
one  is  the  type  or  emblem  of  the  other. 

The  church,  through  her  ordinances,  ministry 
and  means  of  grace,  19  brought  directly  "into  tin1 
house,"  and  operates  there  constantly  as  a  spirit- 
ual leaven.  It  is  the  purpose  of  God  that  our 
homes  be  entrenched  within  the  sacred  enclosures 
of  His  church.  The  former,  in  its  relation  to  tin1 
latter,  is  like  "awheel  within  a  wheel," — one  of 
the  parts  which  make  up  the  great    machinery  of 


Till:  0HEIST1  LN    SOMA 

ili«-  kingdom  of  grace,  operating  harmoniously 
=iti«l  in  its  place  with  all  the  rest,  and  for  the 
same  end.  The  former  is  built  upon  the  latter, 
— receives  her  dedication  and  Banctity  from  it.* 
They  are  correlatives.  The  one  demands  the 
other.  Hence  they  cannol  l"1  divorced.  The 
individual  passes  over  to  the  church  through  the 
Christian  home.  The  one  is  the  step  to  the* 
other.  They  have  the  same  foundation.*  Home 
is  not  erected  upon  a  quicksand,  but  reared  upon 
the  same  rock  upon  which  the  church  is  built. 
Like  the  church,  it  rises  superior  to  all  the  fluc- 
tuations of  civil  society,  and  will  live  and  flourish 
in  all  its  tender  charities,  in  all  its  sweet  enjoy- 
ments, and  in  nil  its  moral  force,  in  the  humble 
cottage  :is  well  as  in  the  costly  palace,  under  the 
shadow  of  liberty  as  well  as  under  the  frowns  of 
despotism,  in  every  nation,  age,  and  clime.  Like 
the  church  of  which  it  is  the  type,  it  can  never 
he  made  desolate;  break  it  up  on  earth,  and  you 
find  it  in  heaven.  Its  nuptial  union  with  the 
church  is  like  thai  between  the  latter  and  Christ. 
Nothing  can  throw  over  our  homes  a  higher  Banc- 
tity, or  invest  them  with  greater  beauty,  or  he  to 
them  a  greater  bulwark  of  strength,  than  the 

church.  Home  is  the  nursery  of  the  church. 
"Those  who  are  planted  in  the  house  of  the 
Lord  >hall  flourish  in  the  courts  of  our  God, 
and    -hall   bring  forth   fruit    in   old   age." 

Thus,  therefore,  we  Bee  that   the  relation  be- 

•i  the  Christian  home  and  the  church  is  one 

Of  mutual   dependence.     The  latter,  as  the  high- 


ITS    RELATION   TO    THE    CHURCH.  53 

est  form  of  religious  association,  demands  the 
former,  and  the  former  looks  to  the  latter  as  its 
completion.  "Where  the  religion  of  the  family 
does  not  move  in  the  element  of  the  church,  it  is 
at  hest  but  sentimentalism  on  the  one  hand,  and 
rationalism  on  the  other.  It  is  a  spurious  pietism. 
To  be  genuine  it  must  be  moulded  by  the  church. 
"Without  this  it  is  destitute  of  sterling  principle, 
of  a  living  faith,  of  well-directed  effort  and  lofty 
aims.  The  family*  which  does  not  move  in  the 
element  of  the  church  is  a  perversion  of  the  true 
purpose  of  God  in  its  institution.  It  will  afford 
no  legitimate  development  of  Christian  doctrine, 
and  the  whole  scheme  of  its  religion  will  rest  for 
its  execution  upon  unreliable  agencies  extraneous 
to  home  itself.  Hence  we  find  that  the  piety  of 
those  families  or  individuals  that  isolate  them- 
selves from  the  church,  is  at  best  but  ephemeral 
in  its  existence,  contracted  in  spirit,  moving  and 
operating  by  mere  impulse  and  irregular  starts, 
and  withal  destitute  of  vitality  and  saving  influ- 
ence. A  death-bed  scene  may  awaken  a  transient 
and  visionary  sense  of  duty  ;  adversity  may  startle 
the  drowsy  ear,  and  cause  the  parents  to  turn  for 
the  time  to  the  souls  of  their  children  ;  but  these 
continue  only  while  the  tear  and  the  wound  are 
fresh,  and  the  apprehensions  of  the  eternal  world 
are  moving  in  their  terrible  visions  before  them  ! 

The  efficacy  of  the  Christian  home,  therefore, 
depends  upon  its  true  relation  to  the  church. 
The  members  should  he  conscious  of  this.      Then 

botli  parents  and  children  will  appreciate  the  reli- 


54  THi:    CHRISTIAN    IK'Ml;. 

gious  ministrations  of  home.  Then  the  former 
will  not  grow  weary  in  well  doing,  bnt  will  have 
something  to  pest  upon,  something  to  look  to; 
and  the  latterwill  love  the  church  of  their  fathers, 
and  venerate  the  family  as  its  nursery. 

But  the  relation  between  the  Christian  home 
ami  the  church  implies  reciprocal  obligations  and 
duties.  The  former  should  uot  only  exist  under 
tin'  patronage  of  the  latter,  but  in  the  spirit  of  a 
true  subordination.  Parent*  should  teach  and 
rule  and  appropriate  the  means  of  grace  under 
the  supervision  of  tin-  church.  They  should  take 
their  household  with  them  to  her  public  Berviee, 
send  their  children  to  her  schools,  and  in  all  re- 
spects bring  them  up  in  her  nurture  and  admoni- 
tion. 

Thus  the  family  should  exist  as  the  faithful 
daughter  of  the  church;  and  as  the  latter  in  the 
wilderness  "  Leaned  upon  her  beloved,"  so  the 
former  should  repose  itself  upon  her  who  is  "the 

mother  of  us  all,"  and   in  whom,  as  the  "body  of 

Christ,"  shaU  "all  the  families  of  the  earth  he 
blessed."  As  her  loving  and  confiding}  daughter, 
the  family  should  live  under  her  government  and 
discipline,  listen  to  her  maternal  voice,  and  be  led 
by  her  maternal  hand:  The  minister  in  his  pas- 
toral functions,  is  the  representative  of  the  church 

ich  of  the  families  of  his  flock;  and  should, 
therefore,  be  received,  loved,  confided  in  and 
obeyed,  as  such.     The  home  that  repels  his  prof- 

i  ministrations  in  the  name  and  according  to 
the  will  of  the  church,  throws  off  its  allegiance  to 


ITS    RELATION    TO    THE    CHURCH. 


55 


the  latter,  and  through  it,  to  Christ, — her  glori- 
ous head,  and  is  hence  unworthy  of  the  name  of 
Christian  home.  The  true  Christian  home  yearns 
after  the  church,  loves  to  lean  upon  it,  to  look  up 
to  it,  to  consecrate  all  to  it,  to  move  and  develop 
its  interests  in  the  sphere  of  the  church,  and  to 
labor  to  complete  itself  in  it. 

"  For  her  my  tears  shall  fall ; 
For  her  my  prayers  ascend  ; 
To  her  my  caivs  an  1  toils  be  giv'n, 
Till  toils  ami  carey  shall  cud." 


CHAPTEK  V. 

HOME    INFLUENCE. 

"  By  the  soft  green  light  in  the  woody  glade, 
On  the  hanks  of  moss,  where  thy  childhood  play'd; 
By  the  gathering  round  the  winter  hearth, 
"When  the  twilight  call'd  unto  household  mirth, 
By  the  quiet  hour  when  hearts  unite 
In  the  parting  prayer  and  the  kind  '  Good  night ;' 
By  the  smiling  eye  and  the  loving  tone, 
thy  life  has  the  spell  heen  thrown, 
An. I  bless  that  gift,  it  hath  gentle  might, 
A  guarding  power  and  a  guiding  light !" 

Tin:  Christian  home  has  an  influence  which  is 
stronger  than  death.  It  is  a  law  to  our  hearts, 
and  binds  lis  with  a  spell  which  neither  time  nor 
change  can  break.  The  darkest  villainies  which 
have  disgraced  humanity  cannot  neutralize  it. 
-haiivtl  and  demon  guilt  will  make  his  dis- 
mal cell  the  Bacred  urn  of  tears  wept  over  the 
memories  of  home;  and  these  will  soften  and 
nirlt  into  penitence  even  the  heart  of  adamant. 

The  home-influence  is  either  a  blessing  or  a 
corse,  either  for  good  or  for  evil.  It  cannot  be 
neutral.     In  either  case  it  is  mighty,  commencing 


ITS    INFLUENCE. 


57 


with  our  birth,  going  with  us  through  life,  cling- 
ing to  us  in  death,  and  reaching  into  the  eternal 
world.  It  is  that  unitive  power  which  arises  out 
of  the  manifold  relations  and  associations  of  do- 
mestic life.  The  specific  influences  of  husband 
and  wife,  of  parent  and  child,  of  brother  and 
sister,  of  teacher  and  pupil,  united  and  harmoni- 
ously blended,  constitute  the  home-influence. 

From  this  we  may  infer  the  character  of  home- 
influence.  It  is  great,  silent,  irresistible,  and  per- 
manent. Like  the  calm,  deep  stream,  it  moves 
on  in  silent,  but  overwhelming  power.  It  strikes 
its  roots  deep  into  the  human  heart,  and  spreads 
its  branches  wide  over  our  whole  being.  Like 
the  lily  that  braves  the  tempest,  and  "the  Alpine 
flower  that  leans  its  cheek  on  the  bosom  of  eter- 
nal snows,"  it  is  exerted  amid  the  wildest  storms 
of  life,  and  breathes  a  softening  spell  in  our 
bosom  even  when  a  heartless  world  is  freezing 
up  the  fountains  of  sympathy  and  love.  It  is 
governing,  restraining,  attracting  and  traditional. 
It  holds  the  empire  of  the  heart,  and  rules  the 
life.  It  restrains  the  wayward  passions  of  the 
child,  and  checks  him  in  his  mad  career  of  ruin. 

"  Hold  the  little  hands  in  prayer,  teach  the  weak  knees 

their  kneeling, 
Let  him  see  thee  speaking  to  thy  God ;   he  will  not  forget  it 

afterward  ; 
When  old  and  gray,  will  he  feelingly  remember  a  mother's 

tender  piety, 
And  the  touching  recollection  of  her  prayers  shall  arrest  the 

strung  man  in  his  sin  I" 

*3 


58  Tin:  CHRISTIAN  HOME. 

Homo-influence  is  traditional.  Tt  passes  down 
current  of  life  from  one  generation  t<>  an. 
other.  Eta  continuity  is  preserved  from  first  t<j 
last  The  homes  of  our  forefathers  rule  us  even 
n.>\v,  and  will  pass  from  us  to  our  children's  chiL 
dren.  Hence  it  has  been  called  the  "fixed  capi- 
ta] "  of  home.  It  keeps  up  a  continuous  stream 
of  home-life  and  feeling  and  interest.  Hence  the 
family  likeness,  moral  as  well  as  physical, — th* 
family  virtues  and  vices, — coming  from  the  family 
root  and  rising  into  all  the  branches,  and  develop- 
ing in  all  the  elements  of  the  family  history. 

Home-influence  is  attractive.  It  draws  us  to 
home,  and  throws  a  spell  around-  our  existence, 
which  we  .have  not  the  power  to  break. 

"  The  holy  prayer  from  my  thoughts  hath  pass'd, 
Thfl  prayer  at  my  mother's  kne< — 
Darken'd  and  troubled  I  come  at  last, 
Thou  home  of  my  boyish  glee  !" 

Home-influence  may  be  estimated  from  the  im- 
mense force  of  first  impressions.     It  is  the  pre* 
tive  of  home  to  make  the   first  impression 
upon  our  nature,  and  to  give  that  nature  its  first 
direction   onward  and  upward.       It   uncovers   the 

moral  fountain,  chooses  its  channel,  and  gives 
the  stream  "us  firsi  impulse.  It  makes  the  "first 
stamp  and  Bets  the  first  seal"   upon  the  plastic 

nature   of    the   child.       It    giv68    the    first    tone  to 

our  desires,  and  furnishes  ingredients  that  will 

eitlu  n  or  embitter  the  whole  cup  of  life. 

e  impressions  are  indelible,  and  durable  as 


ITS    INFLUENCE. 


59 


life.  Compared  with  them,  other  impressions  are 
like  those  made  upon  sand  or  wax.  These  are 
like  "the  deep  borings  into  the  flinty  rock."  To 
erase  them  we  must  remove  ever}''  strata  of  our 
being."  Even  the  infidel  lives  under  the  holy  in- 
fluence of  a  pious  mother's  impressions.  John 
Randolph  could  never  shake  off  the  restraining 
influence  of  a  little  prayer  his  mother  taught  him 
when  a  child.  It  preserved  him  from  the  clutches 
of  avowed  infidelity. 

The  promises  of  God  bear  testimony  to  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  home.  "When  he 
grows  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it!"  History 
confirms  and  illustrates  this.  Look  at  those 
scenes  of  intemperance  and  riot,  of  crime  and 
of  blood,  which  throw  the  mantle  of  infamy 
over  human  life !  Look  at  your  prisons,  your 
hospitals,  and  your  gibbets;  go  to  the  gaming- 
table  and  the  rum-shop.  Tell  me,  who  are  those 
that  are  there?  What  is  their  history?  Where 
did  they  come  from?  From  the  faithful  Chris- 
tian home?  Had  they  pious  lathers  and  mothers  ? 
Did  they  go  to  these  places  under  the  holy  influ- 
ence of  devout  and  faithful  parents?  No!  And 
who  are  they  that  are  dying  without  hope  and 
without  God?  Who  are  they  that  now  throng. 
the  regions  of  the  damned?  Those  who  were 
"trained  up  in  the  way  they  should  go?"  No ! 
if  they  are,  then  the  promises  of  God  must  fail. 
You  may  perhaps  tiiu.l  a  U-w  such.  But  these  are 
exceptions  to  a  general  law.  The  damning  influ- 
ence of  their  unfaithful  home  brought  them  there. 


60  THE    CHRISTIAN    BOMB. 

Could  theybut  speak  to  as  from  their  chambers 
of  wo,  we  should  hear  them  pouring  out  curses 
upon  their  parents,  and  ascribing  the  cause  of 
their  ruin  to  their  neglect  On  die  other  hand, 
could  we  but  listen  to  the  anthems  «'t"  the  rc- 
deemed  in  heaven,  we  Bhould  doubtless  hear  sen- 
timents of  gratitude  for  a  mother's  prayer  and  a 
father's  counsel. 

Let  us  now  briefly-  advert  to  the  objects  of 
home-influence.  It  lb  exerted  upon  the  mem- 
bers of  home,  especially  upon  the  formation  of 
their  character  and  destiny.  It  moulds  their 
character.  The  parents  assimilate  their  children 
to  themselves  to  such  an  extent  thai  we  can  judge 

the   former  by   the   latter.       Laniartine   says    that, 

when  lie  wants  to  know  a  woman's  character,  he 
ascertains  it  by  an  inspection  of  her  home, — that 
he  judges  the  daughter  by  the  mother.  His  judg- 
ment rests  upon  the  known  influence  the  latter 
has  over  the  former.  It  gives  texture  and  color* 
ing  to  the  whole  woof  and  weh  of  character.     It 

form-  the  head  and  the  heart,  moulds  the  atl'ee- 
tionS,  the  will  and  the  conscience,  and  throws 
around  our  entire  nature  the  means  and  appli- 
ances of  it<  development  for  good  or  for  evil. 
y  word,  every  incident,  every  look,  every 
m  of  home,  lias  its  bearing  upon  our  life. 
Had  one  of  these  been  omitted,  our  lives  would 
perhaps  he  different  One  prayer  in  our  child- 
hood was  perhaps  the  lever  that-  raised  us  from 
ruin.  One  omission  of  parental  duty  may  result 
in  the  destruction  of  the  child.     What  an  influ- 


•         ITS    INFLUENCE.  Gl 

ence  home  exerts  upon  our  faith !  Most  of  our 
convictions  and  opinions  rest  upon  home-teaching 
and  faith.  A  minister  was  once  asked,  "  Do  you 
not  believe  Christianity  upon  its  evidences?"  lie 
replied,  "No;  I  believe  it  because  my  mother 
taught  me !" 

The  same  may  be  said  of  its  influence  upon 
our  sympathies,  and  in  the  formation  of  habits. 
It  draws  us  by  magnetic  power  to  home,  and  de- 
velops in  us  all  that  which  is  included  in  home- 
feeling  and  homc-sickness. 

"  I  need  but  pluck  yon  garden  flower, 
From- where  the  wild  weeds  rise, 
To  wake  with  strange  and  sudden  power, 
A  thousand  sympathies  !" 

In  this  respect  how  irresistible  is  the  influence  of 
a*  mother's  love  and  kindness  !  Her  very  name 
awakens  the  torpid  streams  of  life,  gives  a  fresh 
glow  to  the  tablets  of  memory,  and  fills  our  hearts 
witli  a  deep  gush  of  consecrated  feeling. 

Our  habits,  too,  are  formed  under  the  moulding 
power  of  home.  The  "tender  twig"  is  there 
brut,  the  spirit  shaped,  principles  implanted,  and 
the  whole  character  is  formed  until  it  becomes  a 
habit.  Goodness  or  evil  are  there  "  resolved  into 
necessity."  Who  docs  not  feel  this  influence  of 
home  upon  all  his  habits  of  life?  The  gray-haired 
father  who  wails  in  his  second  infancy,  feels  the 
traces  of  his  chiidhood-home  in  his  spirit,  desires 
ami  habits.  Ask  the  strong  man  in  the  prime  of 
life,  whether  the  most  firm  and  reliable  principles 


* 


THE   CHRISTIAN    IIOMK.* 

is  charactei  were  not  tile  inheritance  of  the 
ntal   home.     What  an   Influence  the  teach* 

iiiLT-  :iinl  prayers  of  hia  mother  Monica  had  upon 
the  whole  character  of  the  pious  Augustine!  The 
Bterljng  worth  of  Washington  is  a  testimony  to 
the  formative  power  of  parental  instruction.  John 
Quincy  Adams,  even  when  his  eloquence  thunder- 
ed through  our  legislative  halls,  and  caused  a  na- 
ii<.n  to  startle  from  her  slumber,  bent  his  aged 
form  before  God,  and  repeated  the  prayer  of  Ids 
childhood.  "How  often  In  old  age,"  Bays  Bishop 
Hall,  "have  T  valued  those  divine  passages  of  ex- 
perimental divinity  that  I  heard  from  the  lips  of  a 
mother!"  Dr.  Doddridge  ever  lived  under  the  in- 
fluence  of  those  scripting  instructions  his  mother 
gave  him  from  the  Dutch  tiles  of. her  fireside. 
1I«'  Bays,  "these  lessens  were  the  instruments  of 
mv. conversion."  " Generally,"  says  Dr.  Gum- 
ming, "when  there  is  a  Sarah  in  the  house,  there 
will  he  an  Isaac  in  the  cradle;  wherever  there  is  a 
Eunice  teaching  a  Timothy  the  scriptures  frrJm  a 
child,  there  will  he  a  Timothy  teaching  tin-  gospel 
to  the  rest  of  mankind."  By  the  force  of  this 
same  influence,  the  pious  wife  may  win  over  to 
Christ  her  ungodly  husband,  and  the  godly  child 
may  save  the  unbelieving  parent.  "Well,"  said  a 
moth  roue  day  weeping,  "  1  will  resist  no  Longer! 

How  can  I  hear  to  sec  my  dear  child  love  and  read 

-•ripiurcs  while  I  never  look  into  the  bible, — 
topee  her  retire  and  Beck  <  iod,  while  I  never  pray, 
— to  Bee  h<T  going  to  the  Lord's  Cable,  while  Bis 

h  is  nothing  to  me  !     1  know  she  is  right,  and 


ITS    INFLUENCE. 


63 


I  am  wrong.  I  ought  to  have  taught  her ;  but  I 
am  sure  she  lias  taught  me.  How  can.  I  hear  to 
sec  her  joining  the  church  of  God,  and  leaving  me 
behind — perhaps  forever  !" 

The  Christian  home  has  its  influence  also  upon 
the  state.  It  forms  the  citizen,  lays  the  founda- 
tion for  civil  and  political  character,  prepares  the 
social  element  and  taste,  and  determines  our  na- 
tional prosperity  or  adversity.  We  owe  to  ^ic 
family,  therefore,  what  we  are  as  a  nation  as  well 
as  individuals.  We  trace  this  influence  in  the 
pulpit,  0:1  the  rostrum,  in  the  frees,  in  iir 
and.  political  institutions.  It  is  written  upon  the 
scroll  of  our  national  glory. 

The  most  illustrious  statesmen,  the  most  distin- 
guished warriors,  the  most  eloquent  minist<  rs.  and 
the  greatest  benefactors  o\l  human  kind,  owe  their 
greatness  to  the  fostering  influence  of  home.  Xa- 
poleon  knew  and  felt  this  Avhen  he  said,  "~VY~rttt 
France  wants  is  good  mothers,  and  you  may  he 
sure  then  that  France  will  have  good  sons."  The 
homes  of  the  American  revolution  made  the  men 
of  the  revolution.  Their  influence  readies  yet 
far  into  the  inmost  frame  and  constitution  of  our 
glorious  republic.  It  controls  the  fountains  of 
her  power,  forms  the  character  of  her  citizens  and 
statesmen,  and  shapes  our  destiny  as  a  people. 
Did  not  the  Spartan  mother  and  her  home  give 
character  to  the  spartan  nation?  Her  lessons  to 
her  child  infused  the  iron  nerve  into  the  heart 
of  that  nation,  and  caused  her  sons,  in  the  wild 
tumult    of   battle,    u  either   to   live    behind    their 


•    I  TI1E   CHRISTIAN    IIOME. 

Ids,  or  1"  die  upon  them!"  Her  influence 
fired  them  with  :i  patriotism  which  was  stronger 
than  death.  Had  it  been  hallowed  by  the  pure 
spirit  and  principles  of  Christianity,  what  a  power 
for  (food  it  would  have  been  ! 

But  alas!  the  home  of  ah  A^pasia  had  not  the 
hear!  and  ornaments  of  the  Christian  family. 
Though  "the  monuments  of  Cornelia's  virtues 
were  the  character  of  her  children,"  yet  these 
were  no1  "the  ornaments  of  a  quiet  spirit." 
Bad  the  central  heart  of  the  Spartan  heme 
been  that  pf  the  Christian  mother,  the  Spartan 
nation  would  now  perhaps  adorn  the  brightest 
page  of  history. 

Bui  the  family,  whether  Christian  or  heathen, 

exerts  an  overwhelming  influence  over  the  Btate. 

It  i-  on  the  family  altar  that  the  lire  of  patriotism 

La  first  kindled,  and  often,  too,  bya  mother's  hand. 

• 

"  It  hath  led  the  freeman  forth  to  stain  I 
In  the  mountain  battles  of  his  haul ; 
It  hath  brought  the  wanderer  o'er  the  seas, 
To  die  mi  the  hills  of  his  own  fresh  breeze." 

The* Same,  tOO,  may  he  said   of  the  influence  of 

home  on  the  church.  It  is  the  nursery  of  the 
church,  lavs  the  foundation  of  her  membership, 
und  conditions  tin'  character  of  her  members. 
Tin'  most  faithful  of  ber  ministers  and  members 
are  those  generally  who  have  been  trained  up  in 
the  most  faithful  families.  Wherever  there  is  the 
best  number  of  such  homes,  there  the  ehureh 
•  prosperity. 


ITS    INFLUENCE.  65 

What  a  fearful  responsibility  must  rest,  there- 
fore upon  the  Christian  home !  If  its  influence 
is  for  good  or  for  evil,  for  weal  or  for  woe,  for 
heaven  or  for  hell ;  if  it  is  either  a  powerful  emis- 
sary of  Satan  for  the  soul's  destruction,  or  an  effi- 
cient agent  of  God  for  the  soul's  salvation,  then 
how  responsible  are  those  who  wield  this  influ- 
ence! 

"  Upon  thy  heart  is  laid  a  spell, 

Holy  and  precious — oh  !  guard  it  well !" 

Are  you  not,  Christian  parents,  responsible  to 
God  for  the  exercise  of  such  sovereign  power 
over  the  character  and  well-being  of  your  dear 
children?  And  will  not  the  day  soon  come  when 
you  must  "give  an  account  of  your  steward- 
ship?" Oh!  what  if  it  be  exerted  for  the  ruin 
of  your  loved  ones,  and  they  "  curse  the  day  you 
begat  them?"  What  if,  in  the  day  of  final  reck- 
oning, you  find  your  hands  drenched  in  the  blood 
of  your  offspring,  and  hear  the  voice  of  that  blood 
cry  out  from  the  hallowed  ground  of  home  against 
you,  saying,  "How  long,  oh  Lord,  holy  and  true, 
dost  thou  not  judge  and  avenge  our  blood  on  them 
that  dwell  on  earth?"  Oh  see,  then,  that  your  in- 
fluence be  wielded  for  good. 

"  For  round  the  heart  thy  power  hast  spun 
A  thousand  dear  mysterious  ties ; 
Then  take  the  heart  thy  charms  have  won, 
And  nurse  it  for  the  skies  !" 


CIIArTER  VI. 

HOME   AS   A   STEWARDSHIP. 

"  Takk  this  child  away,  and  nurse  it  fur  mo,  and  I  win 
give  thee  thy  wages." — Exodus  a.,  9. 

"  For  look,  how  many  souls  in  thy  house  be, 
AN*  it  1 1  just  as  many  souls  God  trusteth  thee!" 

Tin:  Christian  home  is  a  stewardship.  Thepar- 
entsare  stewards  of  God,  A  steward  is  a  servant 
.it'  ;i  partictilar  kind,  t<>  whom  the  master  commits 
a  certain  portion  of  his  interest  to  be  prosecuted 
in  his  aame  and  by  his  authority,  and  according 
t<>  lii—  laws  and  regulations.  The  steward  must  act 
according  to  the  will  of  bis  master,  in  his  dealing 
with  what  is  committed  to  his  care.  Such  was 
Eliczcr  in  the  bouse  of  Abraham;  and  such  was 
L'ph  in  the  house  of  Potiphar.  One  of  the  spe- 
cific duties  <>t*  a  steward  was  to  dispense  portions 

1  to  (I,,'  different  members  of  the  household, 

nts  their  portion  in  due  season,  and  to 
superintend  the  genera]  interests  of  the.  master's 
household. 


AS   A    STEWARDSHIP. 


67 


In  a  religious  sense,  a  steward  is  a  minister  of 
Christ,  whose  duty  is  to  dispense  the  provisions 
of  the  gospel,  to  preach  its  doctrines  and  to  ad- 
minister its  ordinances.  It  is  required  of  such 
that  they  be  found  faithful. — 1  Cor.,  chap.  iv. 

In  its  application  to  the  Christian  home,  it  ex- 
presses its  relation  of  subordination  to  God,  and 
the  kind  of  services  which  the  former  must  render 
to  the  latter.  The  stewardship  of  home  is  that 
official  character  with  which  God  has  invested  the 
family.  In  this  sense  the  proprietorship  of  parents 
i-  from  <Jod.  They  are  invested  only  with  dele- 
gated authority,  Their  home  is  held  by  them  only 
in  trust.  It  belongs  to  them  in  the  same  sense  in 
which  a  household  belongs  toa  steward.  It  is  not 
at  their  absolute  disposal.  It  is  the  "household  of 
the  Lord,"'  and  they  are  to  live  and  rule  therein  as 
the  Lord  directs.  They  are  to  appropriate  it  and 
dispose  of  its  interests  according  to  the  known  law 
and  will  of  their  divine  Master,  and  in  this  sense, 
yield,  with  their  whole  household,  a  voluntary  sub- 
ordination to  His  authority. 

Aj8  a  stewardship,  God  has  entrusted  the  Chris* 
tian  home  with  important  interests.  He  has  com- 
mitted to  her  trust,  body  and  soul,  talents  and 
means  of  grace.  He  1ms  entrusted  to  the  parents 
the  training  of  their  children  both  for  time  and 
for  eternity.  These  children  are  the  heritage  of 
the  Lord:  they  are  not  at  the  absolute  disposal 
of  their  parents;  bul  merely  entrusted  to  their 
Care  to  he  educated  and  dealt  with  according  to 
tlu'  will  of  God. 


68 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


Tl  ne  greal  peculiarity  in  this  steward- 

ship of  ill*'  Christian  family, — th.6  absolute  iden- 
tity of  interest  between  the  Master  and  the  stew- 
ard. The  Interest  of  the  former  is  thai  also  of  tin- 
latter;  ami  the  latter,  in  promoting  the  Lnteresi  of 
Lord,  is  but  advancing  his  own  welfare.  Buch 
is  the  economy  of  the  gospel,  and  it  is  this  which 
makes  the  servitude  of  the  Christian  bo  delight- 
ful. Faithfulness  to  God  is  faithfulness  to  our 
own  souls.  Parents  who  are  thus  faithful  to  Gk>d 
must  be  faithful  to  themselves  and  to  their  chil- 
dren. Thus,  then,  the  interest  of  God  in  our  fam- 
ilies is  the  welfare  of  all  the  members.  When 
we  act  towards  our  children  as  God  directs,  we 
are  but  promoting  their  greatest  welfare.  This 
■  prominent  feature  of  God's  mercy  towards 
u-  in  all  His  dealings  with  us.     He  identifies  His 

interest   with  the  interest  of  His  people.      This  is 

a  powerful  incentive  to  parental  integrity,  and  is 
beautifully  exemplified  in  the  mother  of  Moses. 
When  the  daughter  of  Pharaoh  said  to  her,  "Take 
this  child  and  nurse  it  for  me,  and  I  will  pay  thee 
thy  wages,"  was  not  the  interest  of  the  queen 
and  the  nurse  the  same  '(  Tn  nursing  him  for  the 
queen,  that  devoted  mother  nursed  him  also  for 
herself;  and  in  doing  this,  she  was  also  promot- 
ing the  welfare  of  her  son,  and  executing  the  will 
of  <  k>d  <• jerninghim.  This  illustrates  the  prin- 
ciple of  Stewardship  in  the  Christian  home.  Of 
every  child,  God  says  to  its  parent, — 

"Go  none  it  for  the  King  of  heaven, 
And  Hu  will  pay  thee  hire." 


* 


AS    A    STEWARDSHIP. 


69 


Here  is  the  important  trust ;  hero,  too,  is  the  duty 
of  the  steward.  It  is  a  trust  from  God,  and  the 
nursing  is  for  God.  The  child  is  a  tender  plant, 
an  invaluable  treasure,  more  priceless  than  gold, 
or  pearls,  or  diamonds.  Your  duty  as  a  steward,  is 
to  nurse  it,  to  cultivate  it,  to  polish  the  lovely  gem, 
to  take  care  of  it.  And  in  doing  this  for  God,  are 
you  not  also  doing  it  for  the  child, — yea,  if  you 
are  Christian  parents, — for  yourselves?  Will  not 
even  natural  affection,  as  well  as  the  discerning 
eve  of  faith,  like  that  of  the  mother  of  Mbses, 
detect  in  this  stewardship  an  identity  between 
the  interest  of  the  Master  and  that  of  the  stew- 
ard? It  was  not  the  simple  compensation  which 
stimulated  the  mother  of  Moses  to  accede  to  the 
proposition  of  Pharaoh's  daughter.  "What  eared 
she  for  the  "  hire,"  if  she  could  but  save  her  son ! 
This  was  her  great  reward. 

Thus  the  interest  of  the  child  should  be  the 
reward  of  the  parent.  God  will,  it  is  true,  re- 
ward the  faithful  stewaid  of  the  family;  but  He 
specially  rewards  and  blesses  parental  faithful- 
ness in  making  His  purposes  concerning  home, 
identical  with  the  parent's  and  the  children's  wel- 
fare.    In  this  domestic  stewardship, 

"  Like  warp  and  woof,  all  interests 
Are  woven  fast; 

Locked  in  sympathy  like  the  keys 
Of  an  orpan  vast." 

"Fear  not,  little  flock;   for  it  i<  your  Fath 
good  pleasure  t<>  give  you  the  kingdom.      Who, 


Till-:   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


then,  u  that  faithful  and  wise  steward  whom  his 
Lord  shall  make  ruler  over  his  household,  to 
rive  tlifiii  their  portion  Of  meat  in  due  season T 
B  --'■«!  is  that  servant  whom  his  Lord,  when  lie 
cometh,  Bhall  find  bo  doing.  Of  a  truth  I  say 
onto  you,  that  He  will  make  him  riiler  overall 
he  hath.  But  and  if  that  servant  say  in  his  heart, 
my  T,or<l  delayeth  His  coming,  and  shall  begin 
to  beal  the  men-servants  and  maidens,  and  to  eat 
and  drink,  ami  to  he  drunken;  the  Lord  of  that 
servanl  Will  come  in  a  day  when  he  lobketh  not 
for  him,  and  at  an  hour  when  lie  IS  not  aware,  and 
will  mt  him  in  sunder,  and  will  appoint  him  his 
portion  with  the  unbelievers.  And  that  servant 
which  knew  his  Lord's  will  and  prepared  not 
himself,  neither  did  according  to  Jlis  will,  shall 
be  beaten  with  many  stripes.*' 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  character  and  duties 
of 'the  steward  in  the  Christian  home,  the  re- 
ward- of  their  faithfulness,   and   the  penalties  of 

their  unfaithfulness.  As  the  stewards  of  God, 
we  must  be  faithful,  giving  the  souls  as  well  as 
the  bodies  of  our  children  "their  meat  in  due 
season;"  we  mus-1  not  "  waste  the  goods  "  of  out 

Lord,  hut  1 blameless,  not  self-willed,  not  soon 

angry,  nol  given  to  filthy  lucre,  hut  a  lover  of 
hospitality,  Bober,  just,  holy,  temperate,  holding 
the  faithful  word  as  we  have  been  taught*" 
A-  the  faithful  stewards  of  God,  we  Bhould  dedi- 
cate our  household  in  all  respects  to  Him,  and 
make  it  tributary  to  Bia  glory.  "Seek  ye  first 
th     kingdom  of  leaven,  and  all  these  things  shall 


AS   A    STEWARDSnir. 


71 


be  added  unto  you."  The  unjust  steward  will 
first  seek  the  world  and  the  things  of  the  world, 
its  gold,  its  pleasures  and  its  honors;  and  after 
th :it  seek  the  kingdom  of  heaven.  But  this  is 
reversing  the  order  of  procedure  as  prescribed 
by  the  Master;  it  is  running  counter  to  His  will, 
and,  consequently,  wasting  His  goods. 

But  the  greatest  trust  committed  to  parents  is, 
the  souls  of  their  children;  and  hence  their  most 
responsible  duty,  as  the  stewards  of  God,  is  to  at- 
tend to  their  salvation.  You  should  "give  them 
the  bread  of  life  in  due  season."  It  will  be  of 
no  avail  for  you  to  inquire,  "  What  shall  they  cat, 
and  what  shall  they  drink,  and  wherewithal  shall 
they  be  clothed,"  if  you  neglect  this  their  high- 
est interest  and  your  greatest  trust  ?  " "What  shall 
a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?"  It  is  not 
the  wealth,  nor  the  magnificence  of  life  which 
will  make  your  home  happy;  these  are  but  the 
outward  and  fleeting  ornaments  of  the  world,  and 
are  too  often  the  gaudy  drapery  in  which  demon 
guilt  and  miseiy  arc  clothed. 

"  The  cobwebbed  cottacrc,  with  its  raffed  wall 

O     '  DO 

Of  mouldering  mud,  is  royalty  to  me," 

if  souls  are  there  "  fed  upon  the  sincere  milk  of 
the  word,"  and  "trained  up  in  the  ways  of  the 
Lord."  The  training  of  the  soul  for  heaven 
is  both  the  duty  and  the  glory  of  our  homes. 
What  if  parents  lay  up  affluence  here  for  their 
children,  and  secure  for  them  all  that  the  world 
calls  interest,  while  they  permit  their  souls  to 


H 


-•' 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


famish,  and  do  nothing  for  their  redemption! 
"Will  not  such  parents  be  denounced  in  the  day 
of  judgment  as  unjust  and  unfaithful  stewards  t 
And  vrt  alas!  how  many  Buch  Christian  parents 
there  are  who  prostitute  this  highest  interest  of 
home  either  at  tin-  altar  of  mammon  or  of  fash* 
ion  !  Tin-  precious  time  and  talents  with  which 
God  has  entrusted  them,  they  squander  away  in 
things  of  folly  and  of  sin,  leaving  their  children 
to  gr<«w  np  in  spiritual  ignorance  and  wicked- 
.  while  they  resort  t<>  balls  and  theaters  and 
masquerades,  in  pursuit  of  unhallowed  amuse- 
ment and  pleasure. 

Buch  are  unnatural  parents  as  well  as  unjust 
Btewards,  and  their  homes  will  ere  long  be  made 
desolate.  <  >ther  parents  prostitute  the  holy  trust. 
of  home  to  money.  They  are  "self-willed  "  Btew- 
ards, "given  to  filthy  lucre,"  who,  for  the  sake  of  a 
few  dollars,  will  "waste  the  goods"  of  their  Lord, 
make  their  homes  a  drudgery,  and  work  their 
children  like  their  horses,  bring  them  up  in  igno- 
rance, lik«'  "calves  in  the  stall,"  and  contract  their 
whole  existence,  and  all  their  capacities,  desires 

and   hopes,  in   the   narrow  compass  of  work  and 

money. 

We  would  direct  the  attention  of  such  parents 
to  our  last  thought  upon  the  stewardship  of  the 
Christian  home,  (the  practical  view  of  Which  we 
shall  consider  in  the  aext  chapter,)  viz.,  that  it 
involve-  the  principle  of  accountability.  It  im- 
plies a  settlement,  a  time  when  the  Master  and 
his  steward  shall  meet  together  to  close  accounts. 


AS   A    STEWARDSHIP. 


73 


"  Give  an  account  of  thy  stewardship  ;  for  thou 
mayest  be  no  longer  steward."  That  time  will 
be  when  "the  dead,  both  small  and  great,  shall 
stand  before  God."  Then  He  will  examine  into 
your  stewardship*  He  will  ask  you  how  you  em- 
ployed your  talents,  and  to  what  purpose  3*011  ap- 
propriated those  interests  He  committed  to  your 
trust;  and  whether  you  were  faithful  to  those 
souls  which  "hung  upon  your  hire;"  whether 
you  "nursed  them  for  him,"  and  whether  you 
provided  them  with  "their  meat  in  due  season." 
And  if  you  can  answer,  "Yea,  Lord,  here  are 
those  talents  which  thou  hast  given  me ;  behold 
I  have  gained  for  thee  five  other  talents.  Here, 
Lord,  are  those  children  whom  thou  hast  given 
me ;  I  have  brought  them  up  in  thy  nurture,  and 
trained  them  in  thy  ways."  Your  Lord  will  then 
answer,  ""Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  ser- 
vant, thou  hast  been  faithful  over  a  few  things ; 
behold  I  will  make  thee  ruler  over  many  things; 
enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord  !" 

But  if  you  have  been  unfaithful  as  stewards, 
and  have  made  your  household  unproductive  for 
God,  then  you  shall  hear  from  his  lips  the  dread- 
ful denunciation,  "Thou  wicked  and  slothful  ser- 
vant . !"  "Take  the  talent  from  him,  and  cast 
ye  the  unprofitable  servant  into  outer  darkness; 
there  shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth; 
for  unto  ev.rv  one  that  hath   shall  be  given,  and 

lie  shall  have  abundance :  bul  from  him  that  hath 
not  shall  be  taken  away  even  that  which  he  hath  !" 


CHAPTEB  VII. 

-n:Tl.rrii:s    Of    TKR    OfiMSTIAH    HOME. 

"  What  a  holy  charge 
\~  theirs ! — with  what  a  kingly  power  their  love 
M  ;hl  rule  the  fountains  of  the  oew-bora  mind  ! 

Wan  tliein  t->  wake  at  early  <la\vn,  and  sow 

■  1  before  the  world  has  bowd.  it-  tare-." 

the  potent  influence  and  moral  steward- 

ship  of  the  Christian  home,   we   may   infer   its 

mmbility.     The  former  ia  the  argument   for 

the  latter.     The  extent  of  the  one  id  the  measure 

of  the  other.     "  To  whom  much  is  given,  of  them 

much  will  be  required.41     Our  responsibilities  arc 

amensurate   with   <>nr  abilities.     If  the 

rare  properly  devoted,  we  have  our  reward; 

if  not,  our  curse.     God  will  hold  as  accountable 

lor  i  we  make  by  the  abilities  he 

If  he  gives  us  a  field  bo  cultivate, 

.    plants  to  train    up,   then   W6  are  re- 

the  harvest,  just  in  proportion  to  our 

ii  itri  production,      [f  there  is  uot  a  har- 

right  kin.l.  because  we  ueglected  to 


ITS   RESPONSIBILITIES.  75 

cultivate  the  soil,  to  sow  the  proper  seed,  and  to 
train  up  the  plants,  then  He  will  hold  us  account- 
able, and  "  we  shall  not  come  out  thence  till  we 
have  paid  the  uttermost  farthing." 

This  is  an  evident  gospel  principle.  Who  will 
doubt  its  application  to  the  Christian  home  ?  The 
family  is  such  a  field ;  the  seed  of  go'od  or  evil  the 
parents  can  sow  therein  ;  their  children  arc  young 
and  tender  plants,  entrusted  to  their  care ;  their 
mission  from.  God  is  to  "bring  them  up  in  his 
nurture  "  and  to  "train  them  in  his  ways."  And 
where  God  gives  the  command,  he  also  gives  the 
power  to  obey. 

If,  then,  by  their  neglect,  these  tender  plants 
are  blighted,  grow  up  in  the  crooked  ways  of  folly 
and  iniquity,  and  the  leprosy  of  sin  spread  its 
dreadful  infection  over  all  the  posterity  of  home; 
if,  as  a  consequence  of  their  unfaithfulness,  the 
family  becomes  a  moral  desolation,  and  the  anath- 
emas of  unnumbered  souls  in  perdition,  rise  up  in 
the  day  of  judgment  against  them ;  or  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  as  the  fruit  of  their  faithful  steward- 
ship, blessings  and  testimonials  of  gratitude  are 
now  pouring  forth  from  the  sainted  loved  ones  in 
glory,  is  it  not  plain  that  a  responsibility  rests  upon 
the  Christian  home,  commensurate  with  those 
abilities  which  God  lias  given  her,  and  with  those 
interests  he  has  entrusted  to  her  care  ? 

Let  us  look  at  the  objective  force"  of  this.  The 
family  is  responsible  for  the  kind  of  influence  she 
exerts  upon  her  members  Look  at  this  in  its 
practical   light.      There  is  a  family.      God   lias 


Til  ri  \N    SOME. 

Iiildrcn  to  the  parents.     How  fondly  they 

and  Look  ap  to  them  for  Bupport 

tion.     They  inherit  from  their  parents  a 

•  .  evil  or  to  good :   they  imitate 

their  example,  in  :ill  things,  take  their 

the  law  «'t"  life,  arid  follow  in  their  foot- 

as   the    raw    path    to    happiness.      These 

are  members  of  the  church,  and.  as  such, 

dedicated  their  children  to  the  Lord  at  the 

altar  of  baptism,  and  there  in  the  presence  of  God 

and  a  witnessing  assembly,  they  vowed  to  bring 

them  ap  in  the  nurture  of  their  divine  Master, 

and  1"  minister  in  spiritual  things  to  their  Bonis. 

Y'  i  in  thia  home,  u<>  prayer  is  offered  op,  no 

bible  instructions  given,  no  holy  example  set,  no 

tian  government  and  discipline  instituted,  no 

MM-  interests  promoted.     But  on  the  other 

I,  -in  is  overlooked,  winked  at,  and  the  world 

alone  sought    These  children  behold  their  parents 

t«»i!  .  day  t<>  provide  for  their  natural  lite  ; 

■1m-  interest  they  take  in  their  health 

•  ii.  and   the   seli'-denial   with   which 

ire  for  them  a  temporal  compe- 

I  from  all  this  they  quickly  and  very 

nfer  that  their  parents  love  their  bodies 

".■•rid.  and  by  the  force  of  filial 

imitation  they  Boon  Learn  t<>  do  the  same,  and 

vent-,  neglect    their  souls  and   kneel 

'•    altan    Of    Mammon    rather    than    how    in 

'  I  kL      And   thus  they  go  on  from 

in  departure    from    Cod  to  another,  until 

hope  and  without  salvation. 


ITS    RESPONSIBILITIES. 


77 


Tell  me  now,  will  not  God  hold  these  parents 
responsible  for  the  ruin  of  their  children  ?  "Will 
not  the  "  blood  of  their  destruction  rest  upon 
them  ?"  "Will  not  the  "  voice  of  that  blood  "  cry 
out  from  their  family  against  them  ?  If,  as  a  con- 
sequence of  their  negligence  and  of  the  unholy 
influence  they  exerted  upon  them,  they  become 
desperadoes  in  crime  and  villainy,  and  at  last 
drench  their  hands  in  a  brother's  blood ;  and  ex- 
piate their  guilt  upon  the  gibbet,  and  from  there 
go  down  to  the  grave  of  infamy  and  to  the  hell 
of  the  murderer,  will  not  their  blood  "  cry  unto 
them,"  and  will  not  the  woes  and  anathemas  of 
"  Almighty  God  come  in  upon  them  like  a  flood  ? 

Home-responsibility  may  be  inferred  from  the 
relation  of  the  family  to  God  as  a  stewardship. 
We  have  seen  that  parents  are  stewards  of  God  in 
their  household,  and  that  as  such  they  are  placed 
over  their  children,  invested  with  delegated  au- 
thority. God  entrusts  them  to  the  care  of  their 
parents.  Their  nature  is  pliable,  fit  for  any  im- 
pression, exposed  to  sin  and  ruin,  entering  upon 
a  course  of  life  which  must  terminate  in  eternal 
happiness  or  misery,  with  bodies  to  develop,  minds 
to  educate,  hearts  to  mould,  volitions  to  direct, 
habits  to  form,  energies  to  rule,  pursuits  to  f611ow, 
interests  to  secure,  temptations  to  resist,  trials  to 
endure,  souls  to  save  !  <  )b,  how  the  parental  heart, 
must  swell  with  emotions  too  big  for  utterance, 
when  they  contemplate  these  features  of  their  im- 
portant trust.  What  a  mission  this,  to  superin- 
tend the  character  and  shape  the  destiny  of  Buch 


7-  Tin:   CHRIST]  LB    BOMS. 

the  plastic  power  yon  exert 
upon  it.  1 1  i;»t  upon  your  guidance  will  hinge  its 
:  and  yours,  therefore,  will  be  the 
lantii  fit  or  the  lasting  shame.    What  you 

now  doing  for  your  children  is  incorporated 
with  their  very  being,  ainl  will  be  as  imperishable 
m  their  undying  souls.     As  the  stewards  <>\'  God, 
your  provision  for  them  "will  be  "  either 'a  savor 
of  lifr  unto  life  or  a  savor  <A'  death  unto  death." 
We  have  seen  that  God  lias  given  to  you  the 
utility  and  means  of  making  them  subservient  to 
riory;   and  hence  from  you  he  will  require 
them  as  entrusted  talents.     If  you  have  been  un- 
faithful to  them,  your  punishment  will  be  in  pro- 
portion to  the  wretchedness  entailed  npon  your 
children.     If,  instead  of  the  bread  from  heaven, 
■  '1    their  Bonis  with  the   husks    of   Life, 
and  lead  them  on  by  the  opiates  of  bastard  joj  - ; 
it',  "when  they  ask  of  you  bread,  you  give  them  a 
for  a  fish,  you  give  them  a  Berpent,"  will 
it  not  be  "  more  tolerable  for  Sodom  and  Gomor- 
rah in  the  day  of  judgment  than  foryou?" 

Thus,   therefore,  you   Bee,  christian   parents, 
how  your  responsibility  i>  measured  by  the  mag- 
nitude of  those  interests  committed  to  your  ears, 
kind  of  influence  you  exert  over  them, 
■  aormity  of  that  guilt  and  wo  which 
ipon  your  unfaithfulness.     Let 
an  incentive  to  parental  integrity.     The 
pidly  approaching  when  you  must  give 
stewardship.     Oh,  what,  if 
in  t  ild  your  children  '-Jit  for  the 


ITS    RESPONSIBILITIES.  79 

eternal  burning,"  and  remember  that  that  fitness 
is  but  the  impress  of  a  parent's  hand  ! 

Though  it  is  painful  to  lose  a  child  here  ;  bit- 
ter tears  arc  shed;  pungent  agonies  are  felt; 
there  are  heart-burnings  kindled  over  the  grave 
of  buried  love.  But  oh,  how  much  more  agoniz- 
ing it  is  to  bend  over  the  dying  bed  of  an  impen- 
itent, ruined  child !  And  especially  if,  in  that 
terrible  moment,  he  turns  his  eyes,  wild  with 
despair  and  ominous  of  curses,  upon  the  parents, 
and  ascribes  his  ruin  to  their  neglect!  Let  me 
ask  you,  would  not  this  part  of  that  sad  drama 
add  to  your  cup  of  bitterness,  give  a  fearful  em- 
phasis to  all  your  sighs,  and  burnings  to  your 
flooding  tears?  God  would  also  speak  to  you, 
and  say  as  he  did  to  Cain,  "the  voice  of  thy" 
children's  ".blood  cricth  unto  me  !"  "  And  now 
thou  art  cursed  from  the  earth  which  hath  opened 
her  mouth  to  receive  thy"  children's  "blood 
from  thy  hand." 

But  the  scene  would  not  close  at  the  death-bed 
of  your  child;  the  second  act  would  open  at  the 
bar  of  God.  The  maledictions  of  that  ruined 
one  would  there  be  poured  out  with  increased 
fury  upon  you.  Parents  of  my  home  on  earth  ! 
I  am  lost — lost  forever!  Soon  I  shall  go  where 
"the  worm  dieth  not,  and  the  fire  is  not  quench- 
ed." Had  you,  in  the  home  of  my  childhood, 
but  instructed  me,  and  been  as  faithful  to  ray 
soul  as  you  were  to  my  body,  I  might  stand  here 
with  a  palm  of  victory  in  my  hand,  a  eroWD  of 
glory  on  my  head,  the  joy  of  the  redeemed  in 


80  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

my  heart,  and  with  hosannaa  of  praise  upon  my 
lips,  rise  upward  to  the  untold  felicities  of  God's 
eternal  throne!    But  you  <  1  i <  1  not  !     You  fed  my 

body,  but  you  starved  my  soul,  and  left  it  to  per- 
ish forever!  Cursed  be  the  day  in  which  you 
begat  me,  and   the   paps   that   gave   me   suck! 

Cursed  be  the  years  that  I  lived  under  your  root', 
— cursed  bo  you!  Oh,  parents,  such  rebuke 
would  leave  an  undying  worm  in  your  souls; 
and  would  cry  unto  you  from  the  very  depths  of 
hell. 

This  is  no  over-wrought  picture.  It  is  but  the 
scripture  prospectus  of  that  terrible  scene  which 
shall  be  enacted  "  in  the  terrible  and  notable  day 
of  the  Lord,"  when  every  Christian  home  shall 
be  called  to  give  an  "account  of  her  steward- 
ship," and  be  dealt  with  "  according  to  the  deeds 

done  in  the  body." 

And  let  me  say  too,  that  a  similar  and  corres- 
ponding responsibility  rots  upon  those  children 
who    enjoy    the    benefits   of  B    faithful    Christian 

home.  They  must  answer  to  God  for  every 
blessing  there  enjoyed.     It'  they  turn  a  deaf  ear 

and   a   cold    heart    to    all    the    entreaties    of  their 

parents,  and  resist  those  saving  influences  which 
arc  brought  to  bear  upon  them,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, become  Outcasts  from  society  and  from 
heaven,  then  let  me  warn  them  that,  every  prayer 
they  heard  at  the  family  altar,  vyvvy  lesson  given, 

every  admonitiou  delivered,  and  every  holy  ex- 
ample Bel  them,  by  their  pious  parents,  will  be 

ingredients  in  that   bitter  cup  which  it  will  take 


ITS    RESPONSIBILITIES.  81 

eternity  for  them  to  exhaust !  Oh,  children  of 
the  Christian  home  !  think  of  this,  and  remem- 
ber the  responsibility  of  enjoying  the  precious 
benefits  of  a  pious,  faithful  parent.  They  will  be 
your  weal  or  your  woe, — your  lasting  glory  or 
your  lasting  shame ! 

And,  ye  parents,  be  faithful  to  those  little  ones 
that  are  growing  up  "like  olive  plants  around 
your  table,"  so  that  in  the  day  of  judgment,  you 
may  say  with  joy,  in  the  full  assurance  of  re- 
ward, "  Here  are  we,  Lord,  and  the  children 
whom  thou  hast  given  us !"  And  your  reward 
shall  be,    "Well  done,  thou  good  and  faithful 

servant !     Enter  th^u  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord  ! 
*4 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE    FAMILY    BIBLE. 

"  "What  household  thoughts  around  tlice,  as  their  shrine, 
Cling  reverently  ! — Of  anxious  looks  beguiled, 

My  mother's  eyes  upon  thy  page  divine, 

Each  day  were  bent ;  her  accents,  gravely  mild, 
Breathed  out  thy  love  ;  whilst  I,  a  dreamy  child, 

Wandered  on  breeze-like  fancies  ofl  away, 

Yet  would  the  solemn  Word, 

At  times,  with  kindlings  of  young  wonder  heard 

Fall  <m  my  wakened  spirit,  there  to  he 

A   seed  OOl  lost  ;   for  Which  in  darker  years. 
0,  book  of  heaven  !    I  pour  with  grateful  tears, 

Ihart-hle^sings  Ofl  the  holy  dead,   and  thee  !" 

The  family  bible !    What  Bweet  ami  hallowed 
mei iea  cling  like  tendrils  around  thai  book  of 

books!      Bow    familiar    its    sarivd    pages!      How 

often  in  ili«'  sunny  days  of  childhood,  we  were 
fed  from  its  manna  by  the  maternal  hand!  It 
was  our  guide  1<>  the  opening  path  of  life,  and  a 
lamp  to  the  feeble,  faltering  steps  of  youth. 
Who  can   forget  the  family  bible?     It  "\vus  the 


THE   FAMILY    BIBLE.  83 

household  oracle  of  our  grandfathers  and  grand- 
mothers,— of  our  dear  parents.  It  bears  the  rec- 
ord of  their  venerated  names ;  their  birth,  their 
baptism,  their  confirmation,  their  marriage,  are 
here ;  and 

"  Though  they  are  with  the  silent  dead, 
Here  are  they  living  still  I" 

How  joyfully  they  gathered  around  the  cheerful 
hearth  to  read  this  book  divine.  How  often 
their  hearts  drew  consolation  from  its  living 
springs  !  What  a  balm  it  has  poured  into  bleed- 
ing and  disconsolate  hearts.  It  has  irradiated 
with  the  glories  of  eternal  day,  the  darkest 'cham- 
ber of  their  home.  What  brilliant  hopes  and 
promises  it  has  hung  around  the  parental  heart ! 
And  here  too  are  the  names  of  our  parents, — long 
since  gathered  with  their  fathers.  Here  too  are 
our  names,  and  birth,  and  baptism,  written  by 
that  parental  hand,. long  since  cold  in  death  ! 

"  My  father  read  this  holy  hook 

To  brothers,'  sisters  dear  ; 
How  calm  was  my  poor  mother's  look, 

Who  loved  God's  word  to  hear. 
Her  angel-face — I  sec  it  yet ! 

What  thronging  memories  come  ? 
Again  that  little  group  is  met 

Within  the  halls  of  home  I" 

That  old  family  bible!  Do  we  not  love  it? 
Our  names  and  our  children's  names  are  drawn 
from  it.     It  is  the  message  of  our  Father  in  heay- 


84  Tin-:  CHRISTIAN  BOMS. 

en.  Tt  is  the  link  which  connects  onr  earthly 
with  our  heavenly  home ;  and  when  we  open  ita 
sacred  page,  we  gaze  upon  words  which  our  loved 

ones  in  heaven  have  whispered,  and  which  dwell 
even    now    upon    their   sainted    lips  :    and   which 

when  we  utter  them,  there  is  joy  in  heaven  !  We 
would,  therefore,  say  to  the  infidel,  of  this  v- fami- 
ly tree,"  as  the  returning  child  said  to  the  woods- 
man, of  the  old  tree  which  sheltered  the  Blumhers 

and  frolics  of  his  childhood,  "I'll  protect  it  now." 
The  old  family  bible!  What  an  inheritance 
from  a  Christian  home!  Clasp  it,  child,  to  thy 
heart;  it  was  the  gift  of  a  mother's  love!  It 
hears  the  impress  of  her  hand  ;  it  is  the  memento 
of  her  devotedness  to  thee  ;  and  when  just  before 
her  -pint  took  its  flight  to  a  better  land,  she  gave 
it  as  a  guide  for  her  child  to  the  same  happy 
home  : 

"  My  mother's  hand  this  bible  clasped  ; 
She.  .I\  ing,  ir-iN  <n  it  me  '." 

And  the  spiril  of  thai  sainted  mother  shall  still 
whisper  to  me  thr  »ugh  these  sacred  pages.  In 
the  lighl  of  this  lamp  T  follow  her  to  a  better 
home.     With  this  blessed  char!  I  shall  meet  her 

in  heaven. 

■■  With  faltering  Up  and  throbbing  brow, 
f  press  it  to  my  heart." 

Every  Christian  home  has  a  family  bible.  It 
is  found  in  the  hut  as  well  as  in  the  palace.  It  is 
an  indispensable  appendage  to  home.     "Without 


THE    FAMILY    BIT5LE. 


85 


►  it  the  Christian  home  would  be  in  darkness; 
with  it,  she  is  a  "light  which  shineth  in  dark- 
ness." It  is  the  chart  and  compass  of  the  par- 
ent and  the  child  in  their  pilgrimage  to  a  better 
home. 

"Therein  thy  dim  eyes 
Will  meet  a  cheering  light ;  and  silent  words 
Of  merry  breathed  from  heaven,  will  he  exhaled 
From  the  blest  page  into  thy  withered  heart." 

Like  an  ethereal  principle  of  light  and  life,  its 
blessed  truths  extend  with  electric  force  through 
all  the  avenues  and  elements  of  the  home-exist- 
ence, "giving  music  to  language,  elevation  to 
thought,  vitality  to  feeling,  intensity  to  power, 
beauty  and  happiness." 

The  bible  is  adapted  to  the  Christian  home. 
It  is  the  book  for  the  family.  It  is  the  guardian 
of  her  interests,  the  exposition  of  her  duties,  her 
privileges,  her  hopes  and  her  enjoyments.  It  ex- 
poses her  errors,  reveals  her  authority  and  gov- 
ernment, sanctions  her  obedience,  proclaims  her 
promises,  and  points  out  her  path  to  heaven.  It 
makes  sacred  her  marriages,  furnishes  names  for 
her  children,  gives  the  sacrament  <4'  her  dedica- 
tion to  God,  and  consecrates  her  bereavements. 
It  is  the  fountain  of  her  richest  blessings,  the 
source  of  her  true  consolation,  and  the  ground  of 
her  brightest  hope.  It  is,  therefore,  the  book  of 
home.  She  may  have  large  and  splendid  libra- 
ries;  history,  poetry,  philosophy,  fiction,  yea,  all 
the    works    of    classic    (I recce    and    Rome,    may 


86  Tin:  CHRISTIAM   BOMB. 

crowd  upon  her  shelves;  bu1  of  these  Bhe  wfll' 
soon  grow  wearied,  and  the  dust  of  neglect  will 
gather  thick  upon  their  gilded  leaves;  bu1  of 
the  bible  the  Christian  home  can  uever  become 
weary.  Its  sufficiency  for  all  her  purposes  will 
throw  a  garland  of  freshness  around  every  page; 
its  variety  and  manifoldness ;  its  simplicity  and 
beauty;  its  depth  of  thought  and  intensity  of 
feeling,  adapt  it  to  every  capacity  and  to  every 
want,  to  every  emergency  and  to  every  member, 
of  the  household.  The  little  child  and  the  old 
man,  hoary  with  the  frost  of  many  winters,  find 
an  equal  interest  there.  The  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  learned  and  the  ignorant,  the  high  and  the 
low,  are  alike  enriched  from  its  inexhaustible 
treasury. 

It  U  a  book  for  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  con- 
science, the  will  and  the  life.  It  suit-  the  palace 
and  the  cottage,  the  afflicted  and  the  prosperous, 
the  living  and  the  dying.  It  is  a  comfort  to  "the 
house  of  mourning,,"  and  a  check  to  "the  house 
of  feasting."  It  "giveth  seed  to  the  sower,  and 
bread  to  the  eater."  It  is  simple,  yet  grand; 
mysterious,  yet  ph. in ;  and  though  from  (Jod,  it  is 
nevertheless,  within  the  comprehension  of  a  little 

child.      YOU  may  .-end  your  children  to  school  to 

study  other  I ks,  from  which  they  may  be  edu- 
cated for  this  world;  hut  in  this  divine  botk  they 

study  the  Bcience  of  the  eternal  world. 

The  family  bible  has  given  to  the  Christian 
home  thai  unmeasured  superiority  in  all  the  dig- 
nities and  decencies  and  enjoyments  of  life,  over 


THE   FAMILY   BIBLE. 


87 


the  home  of  the  heathen.  It  has  elevated  woman, 
revealed  her  true  mission,  developed  the  true  idea 
and  sacredncss  of  marriage  and  of  the  home-rela- 
tionship ;  it  has  unfolded  the  holy  mission  of  the 
mother,  the  responsibilities  of  the  parent,  and  the 
blessings  of  the  child.  Take  this  book  from  the 
family,  and  she  -will  degenerate  into  a  mere  con- 
ventionalism, marriage  into  a  "social  contract;" 
the  spirit  of  mother  will  depart ;  natural  affection 
will  sink  to  mere  brute  fondness,  and  what  we 
now  call  home  would  become  a  den  of  sullen  self- 
ishness and  barbaric  lust! 

The  bible  should,  therefore,  be  the  text-book 
of  home-education.  Where  it  is  not,  parents  are 
recreant  to  their  duty.  It  is  the  basis  of  all  teach- 
ing, because  it  reveals  "the  truth,  the  way  and  the 
life,"  because  it  is  God's  testimony  and  message, 
and  is  "profitable  for  doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  cor- 
rection, for  instruction  in  righteousness,"  and  was 
written  "for  our  learning,  that  we,  through  pa- 
tience and  comfort  of  the  scriptures,  might  have 
hope,"  and  be  made  "wise  unto  salvation." 

"  While  thou  wert  teaching  my  lips  to  move 
And  my  heart  to  rise  in  prayer, 
I  learned  the  way  to  a  home  above ; 
And  thou  shalt  meet  me  there  !" 


Its  invaluable  treasures,  its  manifoldness,  ita 
beautiful  simplicity,  its  striking  narrative,  its 
startling  history,  its  touches  of  home-life,  its  ex- 
pansive views  of  human  nature,  of  this  life  and 
of  that  which  is  to  come,  its  poetry,  eloquence, 


88 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


and  soul-stirring  sympathies  and  aspirations, 
make  it  the  book  for  homo-training'.  These  fea- 
tures of  its  character  will  develop  in  beautiful 
harmony  the  whole  nature  of  your  child.     Do 

you  wish  to  inspire  them  with  song!  What  SOngS 
are  lik»  those  of  Zion?  J)o  you  wish  them  to 
come  under  the  influence  of  eloquent  oration? 
What  orations  so  eloquent  as  those  of  the  proph- 
ets, of  Christ,  and  of  his  apostles!  Do  you  de- 
sire to  refine  and  elevate  their  souls  with  beauty 
and  sublimity?  Here  in  these  sacred  pages  is  a 
beauty  ever  fresh,  and  a  sublimity  which  towers 
in  dazzling  radiance  far  beyond  the  reach  of  hu- 
man genius.  This  is  evident  from  the  tact  that 
tributes  of  admiration  have  been  paid  to  the  bible 
by  the  most  eminent  poets,  jurists.  Statesmen, 
and  philosophers,  such  as  Milton.  Hale,  Boyle, 
Newton  and  Locke.     Erasmus  and  John  Locke 

betook  themselves   solely   to   the   bible,  after  they 

had  wandered  through  the  glopmy  maze  of  hu- 
man erudition.  Neither  Grecian  song  nor  Roman 
eloquence  :  neither  the  waters  of  Castalia,  nor  the 
fine-spun  theorisma  of  scholastic  philosophy,  could 
satisfy  their  yearnings.  But  when  they  wandered 
amid  the  consecrated  bowers  ^\'  Zion,  and  drank 
from  Biloah's  brook,  the  thirst  of  their  genius  was 

quenched,  and  they  took  their  seats  with  Mary  at 
the  feet  u\'  Jesus,  and  like  little  children,  learned 
of  him  ! 

Even  deists  and  infidels  have  yielded  their  trib- 
ute of  praise.  Wha1  says  the  infidel  Rosseau? 
Hear  him  :  M  The  majesty  of  the  scriptures  strikes 


THE   FAMILY   BIBLE. 


89 


me  with  astonishment.  Look  at  the  volumes  of 
the  philosophers,  with  all  their  pomp,  how  con- 
temptible do  they  appear  in  comparison  with  this  ! 
Is  it  possible  that  a  book  at  once  so  simple  and 
sublime,  can  be  the  work  of  men?"     Thus 

"Learning  and  zeal,  from  age  to  age, 
Have  worshiped,  loved,  explored  the  page." 

How  often  is  this  precious  book  abused !  In 
many  would-be  Christian  homes,  it  is  used  more 
for  an  ornament  of  fashion  than  for  a  lamp  to  tho 
Christian's  path.  We  find  the  bible  upon  their 
parlor  table,  but  how  seldom  in  the  family  room  ! 
They  make  it  a  part  of  their  fashionable  furniture, 
to  be  looked  at  as  a  pretty,  gilded  thing.  Its 
golden  clasps  and  beautiful  binding  make  it  an 
attractive  appendage  to  the  parlor.  Hence  they 
buy  the  bible,  but  not  the  truth  it  contains.  They 
place  it  upon  the  table  as  such ;  and  indeed  many 
do  not  even  give  it  that  prominence,  but,  yielding 
to  the  taste  of  fashion,  place  it  under  the  parlor 
table,  and  there  it  rests,  unmolested,  untouched 
and  unread  even  for  years.  In  many  professedly 
religious  families  this  is  their  family  bible  !  Ah  ! 
it  is  not  so  heartsomc  as  that  well-marked  and 
long-used  old  bible  which  lies  upon  the  table  of 
the  nursery  room,  speaking  of  many  year's  ser- 
vice in  family  devotion  !  The  other  unused  bible 
seems  like  a  stranger  to  the  home-heart,  and  lies 
in  the  parlor  just  to  show  their  visiting  friends 
that  they  have  a  bible!  Go  into  the  nursery  and 
other  private  apartments  of  that  home,  and  you 


90 


THE    CIIKISTIAX    HOME. 


no  bible,  while  you  behold  piles  of  romance 
and  filthy  novels, — those  exponents  of  a  vitiated 
taste  and  a  corrupt  Bociety,  Baited  to  destroy  the 
young  forever ; — whose  outward  appearance  indi- 
cates a  studied  perusal  by  1  >< » 1 1 1  parents  and  chil- 
dren, and  shows  perhaps  thai  they  have  been 
wept  over;  and  av1m.sc  inward  Bubstance  must 
ever  nauseate  healthy  reason,  as  well  as  poison 
the  heart  of  youth,  leading  them  from  the  sober 
realities  of  life  into  a  world  of  nonentities. 

But  upon  the  family  bible  you  cannot  trace 
the  hand  of  diligent  piety.  It  is  shoved  hack  into 
some  part  of  the  room,  as  a  worthless  thing,  ob- 
solete and  BUperfluOUS.  And  sec!  it  is  not  even 
kept  in  decent  order.  The  dust  of  many  day's 
neglect  has  gathered  thick  upon  its  lids.  Oh, 
Christian  parents,  when  you  thus  dose  up  the 
wells  of  salvation  by  the  trash  of  degenerate 
taste  and  vitiated  morals,  you  arc  despising  the 
testimonies  of  the  Lord,  and  Leading  your  chil- 
dren step  by  step  to  the  verge  of  destruction. 
You  may  buy  theiii  splendid  bibles,  gilt  and 
clasped  with  gold,  and  have  their  names  labeled 
in  golden  letter-,  upon  its  lid;  but  if  the  good  old 
family  bible  is  neglected,  and  the  yellow  covered 
literature  of  the  day  substituted  in  its  stead;   if 

yOU  permit  them  tO   buy   and   read   love-sick  tab's 

in  preference  to  their  bible,  and  they  see  you  do 
the  same,  yon  are  but  making  a  mock  of  God's 
Word,    and    must    answer   before    Nim   for  your 
children's  neglect  of  its  sacred  pages. 
Let  me,  therefore,  affectionately  admonish  you 


THE    FAMILY   BIBLE. 


91 


to  be  faithful  to  that  precious  book  you  call  the 
family  bible.  Read  it  to  your  children  every  day. 
From  its  sacred  pages  teach  them  the  way  to  live 
and  the  way  to  die.  Let  it  be  an  opened,  studied 
family  chart  to  guide  you  and  them  in  visions  of 
untold  glory  to  the  many  mansions  of  your 
Father's  offered  home  in  heaven.  It  will  soothe 
your  sorrows,  calm  your  fears,  strengthen  your 
faith,  brighten  your  hopes,  and  throw  around  the 
graves  of  the  loved  and  the  cherished  dead,  the 
light  and  promise  of  reunion  in  heaven  ! 

"  A  drop  of  balm  from  this  rich  store, 
Hath  healed  the  broken  heart  once  more. 
Like  angels  round  a  dying  bed, 
Its  truths  a  heavenly  radiance  shed ; 
And  hovering  on  celestial  wings, 
Breathe  music  from  unnumbered  strings." 


CHAPTER   IX. 


INFANCY. 


"A  babe  in  a  house  is  a  well-spring  of  pleasure,  a  messenger 
of  peace  and  love  ; 

A  resting  place  fur  innocence  on  earth  ;  a  link  between  angels 
ami  men  ; 

Y<t  it  is  a  talent  of  trust  to  be  rendered  back  with  interest; 

A  delight,  but  redolent  "f  care,  honey  sweet,  but  lacking  not 
the  bitter, 

For  character  groweth  day  by  day,  and  all  things  aid  it  in  un- 
folding, 

And  (he  bent  unto  g 1  or  evil  may  be  given  in  the  hours  of 

infancy." 

Tin:  birth  of  each  child  constitutes  a  new  era 
in  ilic  ( 'liN.-t'wiii  home,  ;iik1  multiplies  its  cares,  its 
pleasures  and  its  responsibilities.  The  first-born 
babe,  like 

"  The  first  gilt  thing 
That  wears  the  trembling  pearls  of  spring," 

throws  the  rainbow  colors  of  hope  and  joy  over 
the  bowers  of  home,  and  awakens  in  the  bosom 


INFANCY.  93 

of  parents,  emotions  and  sympathies,  new-born 
and  never  before  experienced ;  cords  in  the  heart, 
before  untouched,  now  begin  to  thrill  with  new 
joy;  sympathies,  before  unfelt,  now  swell  the 
bosom.  Sleep  on,  thou  little  one,  in  thy  "rosy 
mesh  of  infancy,"  in  the  first  buddings  of  thy 
being !  These  hours  of  thy  innocence  are  the 
happiest  of  thy  life.  Thou  art  "the  parent's 
transport  and  the  parent's  care."  Blessings  are 
fondly  poured  upon  thy  head.  Rest  thee  there 
in  thy  little  bed,  thou  happy  emblem  of  the  loved 
and  pure  in  heaven  ' 

"  Visions  sure  of  joy 
Are  gladdening  his  rest;  and  ah,  who  knows 
But  waiting  angels  do  converse  in  sleep 
With  babes  like  this  !" 

imparting  to  his  infant  soul  unutterable  things, 
whispering  soft  of  bliss  immortal  given,  and  pour- 
ing into  his  new-born  senses  the  dreams  of  open- 
ing heaven. 

What  charms  and  momentous  interests  sur- 
round the  cradle  of  infancy !  When  the  first 
wailing  of  dependence  reaches  the  listening  car, 
what  new-born  sympathies  spring  up  in  the  ] Tr- 
ent's bosom  !  What  a  thrill  of  rapture  the  first 
soft  smile  of  her  babe  sends  to  the  mother's 
heart!  It  is  this,  the  parents'  likeness  unsullied 
by  their  faults  and  cares;  it  is  this,  their  living 
love  in  personal  being, — their  love  breathing  and 
smiling  before  them,  lisping  their  names ;  it  is 
this, — their  new-born  hope  and  care, — that  gives 


94  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

to  infancy  such  a  charm,  such  a  never-dying  in- 
terest, and  causes  the  parent  to  cling  to  it  with 
Bnch  fond  tenacity.  "Can  a  mother  forget  her 
Bucking  child  ?"  Never,  while  Bhe  claims  a  moth- 
er's  heart !  Tlic  conch  "1"  her  babe  is  the  deposit- 
ory of  all  those  fond  hopes  ami  joys  and  cares  and 
memories  to  which  a  mother's  heart  is  sacred. 

Tlie  infant  is  the  most  interesting  member  of 
the  Christian  home.  It  is  the  first  budding  of 
home-life,  disclosing  every  day  some  new  beauty, 
"the  father's  lustre  and  the  mother's  bloom,"  to 
gladden  the  hearts  of  the  family.  "As  the  dewy 
morning  is  more  beautiful  than  the  perfect  day  ; 
as  the  opening  bud  is  more  lovely  than  the  full 
blown  flower,  so  is  the  joyous  dawn  of  infant 
life  more  interesting  than  the  calm  monotony  of 
riperyears."  It  is  the  most  interesting,  because 
the  purest,  member  of  the  household.  It  is  the 
connecting  link  which  binds  home  to  its  great 
antitype  above  "Ye  Btand  nearest  to  God,  ye_ 
little  ours."  nearer  than  those  who  have  tasted 
the  bitter  cup  of  actual  sin.  They  are  the 
budding  promises,  the  young  loves,  the  precious 
plants  of  home;  they  are  its  sunshine,  its  pro? 
jive  interest,  its  prophetic  happiness,  the  firsl 
Link  in  the  chain  of  its  perpetuity.  Like  the 
purple  hue  of  the  wild  heath,  throwing  its  gay 
color  over  the  rugged  hill-side,  they  cast  a  magic 
polish  over  the  spirit  of  the  parent,. causing  the 
home-fireside  to  glow  with  new  life  and  cheerful- 
ness. 

Infant-  are  emblems  of  the  loved  and  sainted 


INFANCY. 


95 


ones  in  heaven.  "  Of  such  is  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  "  Except  ye  become  as  this  little  child, 
ye  cannot  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven." 
This  is  based  upon  proper  principles.  The  heart 
of  the  child  is  purely  devotional  and  confidential. 
It  is  a  helpless  dependent  upon  the  parent.  It 
abdicates  its  self-will  with  joy;  silently  do  the 
laws  of  home  control  it ;  its  reverence  and  love 
are  the  melody  of  its  being;  its  life  is  an  ex- 
change of  obedience  for  protection.  Its  path  is 
chosen  for  it  by  the  lamp  of  parental  experience, 
and  the  calm  pure  light  of  a  mother's  love.  How 
close  it  keeps  to  the  heart  that  loves  it,  and  to  the 
hand  that  leads  it!  It  looks  without  doubt  or 
suspicion  in  the  parent's  eye,  and  makes  the  par- 
ent's home  and  interest  its  own. 

Here  is  a  picture  of  the  true  child  of  God  in 
his  tent-home  on  earth,  and  in  his  eternal  home 
in  heaven.  For  this  they  arc  given  to  us.  As 
tlaw  arc  to  us,  their  parents,  so  should  we  he  to 
our  Father  in  heaven,  and  so  are  all  those  loved 
and  sainted  ones  who  have  gone  before  us. 

"  Little  children,  flowers  from  heaven, 
Strewn  on  earth  by  God's  own  hand, 
Earnest  emblems  to  us  given, 
From  the  fields  of  an^el-land  !" 


Hence  it  was  that  Jesus  loved  little  children, 
took  them  in  His  arms,  blessed  them,  and  regard- 
ed i1i.mii  as  "the  lambs  of  His  flock."  "He  shall 
gather  the  lambs  with  His  arm."  He  gazed  with 
pleasure  into  their  sweet  faces,  invited  their  par- 


96  THE  CHRISTIAN'   HOME. 

ents  to  bring  them  unto  Him.  and  held  them  up 
ns  tli«*  type  of  the  spirit  ami  character  of  the  ad- 
mitted into  heaven.  Ami  the  aged  John,  having 
in  view  this  typical  character  <'t"  children,  ad- 
dressed Lis  followers  as  his  little  children! 

Infants  are  helpless  dependents  upon  others  for 
subsistence  ami  protection.  It*  abandoned  at  their 
birth,  their  first  breath  would  soon  be  succeeded 
by  their  last.  Hence  they  demand  all  the  atten- 
tion which  maternal  love  ami  tenderness  can  be- 
stow. They  live  like  the  tender  bud  or  the  open- 
ing blossom,  exposed  to  the  blight  of  a  thousand 
fortuitous  events.  Hence  their  existence  is  very 
precarious;  in  a  moment  they  may  sink  like  the 
frosted  flower  in  its  lovely  blush.  This  maybe 
Said  of  the  BOul  as  well  as  of  the  body  and  mind. 

What  an  argument,  therefore,  we  have  here  for 
parental  <1  i  1  i u •  1 1<  * •  and  promptness  in  duty  to  the 

eternal  as  well  as  to  the  temporal  well-being  of 

the  child. 

The  infant  Lsthefirsl  prophecy  of  the  man.    It 

is  the  germ  of  manhood.  It  is  the  man  in  a  state 
<>f  involution.  It  is  the  undeveloped  man.  In- 
fancy is  the  twilight  of  life, — the  first  morning  of 
an  endless  being,  the  age  of  germ  and  of  mere 
sense.  As  the  first  dawn  of  Bpring  is  the  season 
of  the  undeveloped  harvest,  so  childhood  is  liuin- 

hood  in  possibility.     The  infant  is  the  vernal  bud 

of  lif«-,  it  ig  a  being  of  promise  and  of  hope, — 
the  prophecy  of  the  future  man.  Hence  the 
age  of  education.  The  mother,  in  the  nursery, 
is. ever  evolving  into  the  strength  of  maturity 


INFANCY.  97 

those  powers  of  her  child  which  will  be  wielded 
for  happiness  or  for  misery.  Her  babe  is  an  "  em- 
bryo angel,  or  an  infant  fiend."  We  behold  in 
that  fragile  form,  the  bud  of  the  strong  man, — 
the  possibility  of  one  who  may  in  a  few  years 
arouse  with  his  thrilling  eloquence  a  slumbering 
nation,  or  with  the  torch  and  sword  of  revolu- 
tion, overturn  empires  and  dethrone  kings,  or 
with  his  feet  upon  the  walls  of  Zion,  and  the 
words  of  life  upon  his  lips,  overthrow  the  strong- 
holds of  Satan,  and  bring  the  rebel  sinner  in  pen- 
itence to  the  feet  of  Jesus.  Yea,  we  see  in  that 
wailing  infant  of  a  week,  the  outspringing  of  an 
immortal  spirit  which  may  soon  hover  on  cherub- 
pinion  around  the  throne  of  God,  or  perhaps,  in  a 
few  years,  sink  to  the  regions  of  untold  anguish. 
Oh,  it  is  this  which  gives  to  the  cradle  of  infancy 
such  a  thrilling  interest.  The  star  of  those  new- 
born hopes,  which  hangs  over  it,  will  set  in  eter- 
nal night,  or  rise  with  increasing  splendor,  till  it 
is  lost  in  the  full  blaze  of  eternal  day ! 
.  Infants  are  a  great,  a  dangerous  and  responsi- 
ble trust.  They  are  the  property  of  God, — "an 
heritage  from  the  Lord,"  given  to  their  parents 
as  a  loan,  a  "  talent  of  trust  to  be  rendered  back 
with  interest."  The  infant  is  especially  the  moth- 
er's trust. 

"  Though  first  by  thee  it  lived,  on  thee  it  smiled, 
Yet  not  for  thee  existence  must  it  hold, 
For  God's  it  is,  not  thine  !" 

Given  by  its  Creator  in  trust  to  her,  it  is  her  task 
5 


98  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

to  bring  it  up  for  God.  Here  especially  do  we 
Bee  the  holy  mission  of  the  mother.  None  but 
the  mother's  heart  and  Love  can  give  security  for 
this  trust.  The  father  is  unfit  by  nature  for  the 
delicate  training  of  infancy.  The  mother's  hand 
alone  can  smooth  the  infant's  couch,  and  her  voire 
alone  can  sing  him  to  his  rosy  rest.  Her  never- 
wearied  love  alone  can  watch  beside  him  "till  the 
last  pale  star  had  set," 

"  While  to  the  fullness  of  her  heart's  glad  hearings 
His  fair  cheek  rose  and  fell ;  and  his  hright  hair 
Waved  softly  to  her  breast." 

She  is  the  ministering  angel  of  infancy,  and  the 
priestess  of  the  nursery  of  home.  She  sets  the 
first  seal,  makes  the  first  stamp,  gives  the  first 
direction,  supplies  the  first  want,  and  soothes  the 

firsl  sorrow.    To  her  is  committed  human  Life  in 

its  most  helpless  and  dangerous  state  Touch  it 
then  with  the  rude  hand  of  parental  selfishness; 
let  it  grow  up  in  a  barren  soil,  amid  noxious  weeds, 
under  the  influence  of  unholy  example ;  and  the 
delicate  tints  of  this  blossom  will  soon  fade;  the 
blush  of  loveliness  will  soon  give  way  to  the  blight 
of  moral  deformity. 

Hence  every  babe  will  be  the  parent's  glory  or 
the  parent's  shame,  their  weal  or  their  woe.  If 
entrusted  to  them,  God  will  hold  them  responsi- 
ble for  its  moral  training.  He  will  require  it  from 
them  with  interest.  Their  trust  involves  the  eter- 
nal happiness  or  misery  of  their  child.  The  pro- 
duction- of  art   will  perish;   the  sun  will  be  blot- 


INFANCY.  99 

ted  out,  and  all  the  glory  and  magnificence  of  the 
world  will  vanish  away,  but  your  babe  will  live 
forever.  It  will  survive  the  wreck  of  nature,  and 
either  shine  as  a  diadem  in  the  Redeemer's  crown 
of  glory,  or  dwell  in  the  blackness  and  darkness 
of  perdition  forever. 

To  3tou,  Christian  parents,  as  the  stewards  of 
God,  this  precious  being  is  entrusted.  The  care 
of  its  body,  mind  and  spirit  is  committed  to  you ; 
and  its  character  and  destiny  in  after  life  mil  be 
the  fruit  of  your  dealings  with  it.  It  looks  to  you 
for  all  things.  It  confides  in  you,  draws  its  confi- 
dence from  your  protection,  relies  on  your  known 
love,  takes  you  as  the  pattern  of  its  life,  imitates 
you  as  its  example,  learns  from  you  as  its  teacher, 
is  ruled  by  you  as  its  governor,  is  measured  by 
you  as  its  model,  feels  satisfied  with  you  as  its 
sutficiency,  and  rests  its  all  upon  you  as  its  all  and 
in  all. 

Thus  you  arc  the  very  life  and  soul  of  its  being, 
and  hence  in  its  maturity,  it  will  be  a  fair  ex- 
ponent of  your  character.  You  are  the  center 
around  which  its  life  revolves,  the  circumference 
beyond  which  it  never  seeks  to  go.  What,  there- 
fore, if  you  are  unfit  to  move  and  act  in  its  pres- 
ence !  What,  if  in  its  imitation  of  you,  its  life 
be  a  progressive  departure  from  God !  Oh,  what, 
if  in  the  day  of  judgment,  it  be  an  outcast  from 
heaven,  and,  as  such,  bear  the  impress  of  a  par- 
ent's hand  !  God  will  then  hold  you  account- 
able for  every  injury  you  may  have  done  your 
child. 


100  THE    CHRISTIAN   IIOME. 

Begin,  therefore,  the  work  of  training  that 
infant,  now,  while  its  nature  is  pliable,  suscepti- 
ble, yet  tenacious  of  first  impressions.  "  With 
his  mother's  milk  the  young  child  drinketh  edu- 
cation." What  you  now  do  for  your  child  will 
be  seen  in  all  future  ages.  "Scratch  the  green 
rind  of  a  sapling,  or  wantonly  twist  it  in  the 
soil,  the  scarred  and  crooked  oak  will  tell  of 
thee  for  centuries  to  come"  "It  will  not  de- 
part from  the  ways  in  which  you  train  it."  If, 
therefore,  you  would  he  a  blessing  to  your  child, 
and  avert  those  terrible  judgments  of  God  which 
rest  upon  parental  delinquency,  begin  now,  while 
your  infant  is  in  the  cradle,  to  sow  the  seeds  of 
life.  Prune  well  the  tender  olive  plants,  and 
direel  its  evolving  life  in  the  way  God  would 
have  it  go. 

"  Soon  as  the  playful  innocent  can  prove 
A  tear  of  pity  or  a  smile  of  love," 

teach  it  to  lisp  the  name  of  Jesus  and  to  walk  in 
His  commandments.  Bui  alas!  how  many  Chris- 
tian parents  are  recreant  to  this  duty!  How  many 
destroy  their  children  by  the  over-indulgence  of  a 
misdirected  love  and  sympathy,  and  by  procrasti- 
nating the  period  of  home-education.  Forgetful 
of  the  power  of  first  impressions,  they  wait  until 
their  children  are  established  in  sin,  and  the  seeds 
of  evil  are  sown  in  their  hearts. 

This  is  the  reason  why  so  many  reckless  and 
wicked  children  come  out  of  Christian  homes. 
Their  parents  permit  their  misdirected  fondness 


INFANCY. 


101 


to  absorb  all  their  thoughts  and  apprehensions  of 
danger  and  responsibility.  Their  love  for  the 
body  and  mind  of  their  children  seems  to  repel 
all  love  for,  or  interest  in,  their  soul.  The  former 
they  tenderly  nurse,  fondly  caress,  and  zealously 
direct.  But  the  soul  of  the  infant  is  unhonored, 
unloved  and  uncared  for.  It  is  blighted  in  its 
first  bursting  of  beauty.  Oh,  cruel  and  unthink- 
ing parents !  why  will  you  thus  abuse  the  loveliest 
and  noblest  part  of  your  child  ?  Why  make  that 
babe  of  yours  a  mere  plaything  ?  If  "  out  of  the 
mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  God  has  perfected 
praise,"  then  why  not  train  them  up  to  praise 
Hmi?  "Take  heed  that  ye  despise  not  one  of 
these  little  ones,  for  I  say  unto  you,  that  in  heaven 
their  angels  do  always  behold  the  face  of  my  Fa- 
ther which  is  in  heaven."  Oh,  you  who  are  the 
nurse  of  infant  innocence,  have  you  ever  thought 
of  the  deep  curse  that  will  attend  your  neglect  of 
the  babe  which  God  has  given  you !  Have  you, 
pious  mother,  as  you  pressed  your  child  to  your 
bosom,  evGr  thought  that  it  would  one  day  be  a 
witness  for  or  against  you  ?  Far  better  for  thee 
and  it  that  it  were  not  born  and  you  never  revered 
as  mother,  than  that  you  should  nourish  it  for  spir- 
itual beggary  here,  and  for  the  eternal  burnings 
hereafter !  Oh,  look  upon  that  babe  !  It  is  the 
gift  of  God, — given  to  thee,  mother,  to  nurse  for 
Him.  Look  upon  that  cherished  one !  See  its 
smile  of  confidence  turned  to  you !  It  is  a  frail 
and  helpless  bark  on  the  tumultuous  sea  of  life ; 
it  looks  to  you  for  direction, — for  compass  and 


102  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

for  chart ;  your  prayers  for  it  will  be  heard  ;  3-our 
hand  can  save  it;  the  touch  of  your  impressions 
will  be  a  savor  of  life  unto  life,  or  of  death  unto 
death. 

"  Then  take  the  heart  thy  charms  havo  won, 
And  nurse  it  fur  the  skies  !" 


CHAPTER   X. 

HOME    DEDICATION. 

"The  rose  was  rich  in  bloom  on  Sharon's  plain, 
When  a  young  mother  with  her  first  born  thence 
Went  up  to  Zion.,  for  the  boy  was  vowed 
Unto  the  Temple-service  ;  by  the  hand 
She  led  him,  and  her  silent  soul,  the  while, 
Oft  as  the  dewy  laughter  of  his  eye 
Met  her  sweet  serious  glance,  rejoiced  to  think 
That  aught  so  pure,  so  beautiful,  was  hers, 
To  bring  before  her  God  !" 

Beautiful  thought,  and  thrice  beautiful  deed, 
— fresh  from  the  pure  fount  of  maternal  piety ! 
The  Hebrew  mother  consecrating  her  first-born 
child  to  the  Temple-sendee, — dedicating  him  to 
the  God  who  gave  him !  What  visions  of  un- 
earthly glory  must  have  been  before  her,  as  she 
led  her  little  boy  before  the  altar  of  the  "TTing 
of  kings  !"  Happy  mother!  thou  hast  long  since 
gone  to  thy  great  reward.  And  happy  child !  to 
be  led  by  such  a  mother.  Ye  are  now  together 
in  that  temple  "not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in 
the   heavens,"   and  with    united  voice    swelling 


104  THE  CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

e  anthems  of  glory  which  are  poured  from 
angelic  lips  and  harps  to  Him  who  sitteth  upon 
the  throne. 

What  an  example  La  this  lor  the  Christian  pa- 
renl  !  Gk>d  is  the  Father  of  every  home.  From 
Ilim  cometh  down  every  good  and  perfect  gift; 
and  hence  to  Him  should  all  the  interests  and  the 
loved  ones  of  the  household  be  dedicated.  This 
is  essential  to  the  very  conception  of  a  Christian 
home. 

But  especially  should  the  children  be  dedicated 
to  the  Lord.  That  infant  over  which  the  mother 
bends  and  watches  with  such  passionate  fondness, 
is  "an  heritage  of  the  Lord,"  given  to  her  only 
in  trust,  and  will  again  be  required  from  her. 
Aj  Boon  as  children  are  given  they  should  be 
devoted  to  Him;  for  "the  flower,  when  offered 
in    the   bud,    is    no   mean    saerili  Then    and 

then  only  will  parents  properly  respect  and  value 
their  offspring,  and  deal  with  them  as  becometh 
the  property  of  God.  By  withholding  them,  the 
parents  become  guilty  of  the  deed  of  Ananias 
and  Bapphira.  Like  the  Hebrew  mother,  every 
Christian  parent  will  gratefully  devote  them  to 
Him.  and  rejoice  that  they  have  such  a  pure 
oblation  to  " bring  before  their  God." 

"  My  chilil,  my  treasure,  I  have  given  thee  up 
To  Him  who  gave  thee  mel   Ere  yet  thine  eye 

■  i  with  oonaoious  love  upon  thy  mother, 
Long  ere  thy  lipe  could  gently  sound  her  name, 
She  gave  thee  un  to  God  ;  >\m  Bought  fur  thee 


ITS    DEDICATION.  105 

One  boon  alone,  that  thou  mightest  be  His  child ; 
,  His  child  sojourning  on  this  distant  land, 

His  child  above  the  blue  and  radiant  sky, 
'Tis  all  I  ask  of  thee,  beloved  one,  still !" 

Here  is  a  dedication  worthy  of  a  Christian 
mother.  Natural  affection  and  human  pride 
might  lead  the  fond  mother  to  dedicate  her 
child  at  the  altar  of  Mammon,  to  gold,  to  fame, 
to  magnificence,  to  the  world.  But  no,  every 
wish  of  the  pious  mother's  heart  is  merged  in 
one  great  wish  and  prayer,  "that  thou  may'st 
be  Ills  child." 

The  dedication  of  our  children  to  the  Lord  is 
one  of  the  first  acts  of  the  religious  ministry  of 
home.  All  the  means  of  grace  will  be  of  no 
avail  without  it.  What  will  the  acts  of  the  gos- 
pel minister  avail  if  they  are  not  preceded  by  an 
offering  of  himself  to  the  Lord  who  has  called 
him  ?  His  holy  vocation  demands  such  an  of- 
fering. It  is  his  voluntary  response  to  and  ac- 
ceptance of  his  calling  of  God.  Thus  with 
Christian  parents.  What  will  baptism  avail, 
so  far  as  the  parents  are  concerned,  without  this 
dedication  of  their  children  to  Him  in  whose 
name  they  are  baptised  ?  No  more  than  the 
form  apart  from  the  spirit.  It  would  be  but  a 
mockery  of  God. 

We  have  a  beautiful  example  and  illustration 
of  this  dedication,  in  the  family  of  the  faithful 
Abraham.  "  By  faith  Abraham,  when  he  was 
tried,  offered  up  Isaac:  and  he  that  had  received 
the  promises  offered  up  his  only  begotten  son." 
*5 


10G 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


We  might  at  first  view  regard  this  act  of  his  as 
an  evidence  of  his  want  of  parental  sympathy 
and  tenderness.  But  not  so:  it  is  rather  an  evi- 
dence of  these.     What  he  did  was  the  prompting 

of  a  true  faith,  yielding  implicit  obedience  to  the 
Lord,  and  offering  as  an  obligation  to  Sim,  what 
he  loved  most  upon  earth.  Had  he  not  loved 
him  so  dearly,  God  would  not  have  chosen  him 
as  a  means  of  testing  his  father's  religious  fidel- 
ity. Hence  this  oblation  of  his  son  was  the  best 
evidence  of  his  supreme  love  to  God,  and  that  all 
he  had  was  consecrated  to  his  service.  This  act 
called  for  the  subordination  of  natural  affection 
to  christian  faith  and  love.  "  Take  now  thine 
only  son  Isaac,  whom  thou  lovest,  and  get  thee 
into  the  land  of  Moriah,  and  offer  him  there  for 
a  burnt  offering !" 

What  a  startling  command  was  this!  How  it 
must  have  stirred  up  the  soul  of  thai  parent,  and 
for  the  time  caused  a  bitter  conflid  between  nat- 
ural affection  and  christian  faith!.  "Take  thy 
son," — had  it  been  a  slave,  the  command  would 
not  have  been  so  stirring;  but  a  son,  an  only  son, 
the  j<»y  of  his  heart,  and  the  pride  and  hope  of 
his  age, — the  son  he  so  much  loved, — oh  it  was 
this  that  harrowed  up  such  a  revulsion  in  his 
soul,  and,  for  the  moment  doubtless,  caused  him 
to  shrink  from  the  very  thought  of  obedience. 
But  the  command  was  imperious, — it  was  from 
God;  and  though  the  parent  shrunk  from  tho 
deed,  yet  the  faith  of  the  faithful  servant  gained 
a  signal  triumph  over  all  the  protestations  of  nat- 


ITS    DEDICATION. 


107 


ural  affection,  and  silenced  all  its  rising  murmurs ; 
for  "Abraham  rose  up  early  in  the  morning,  and 
saddled  his  ass,  and  took  two  of  his  young  men 
with  him,  and  Isaac  his  son,  and  clave  the  wood 
for  the  burnt  offering,  and  rose  up,  and  went  unto 
the  place  of  which  God  had  told  him."  There 
he  built  an  altar,  laid  the  wood  in  order,  bound 
Isaac,  and  laid  him  upon  the  wood  on  the  altar. 
But  when  with  uplifted  sacrificial  knife,  he  was 
about  to  slay  his  son,  just  at  the  point  where  God 
had  the  true  test  of  his  faith,  a  ministering  angel 
stayed  his  hand,  and  prevented  the  bloody  form 
in  which  he  was  about  to  offer  his  only  son  to 
God  ;  "  for  now  I  know  that  thou  fcarest  God, 
seeing  thou  hast  not  withheld  thy  son,  thine  only 
son,  from  me !"  He  needed  now  but  dedicate 
him  in  the  moral  sense  to  God. 

The  case  of  Samuel  is  another  instance  of  the 
offering  of  children  unto  the  Lord.  His  mother 
had  asked  him  of  the  Lord,  and  vowed,  as  she 
prayed,  to  "give  him  unto  the  Lord  all  the  days 
of  his  life." — 1  Sam.  I.,  11.  Her  prayer  was  an- 
swered, and  in  obedience  to  her  holy  vow,  she 
took  him,  when  very  young,  with  her  to  the 
Temple,  where  she  offered  him  up  as  an  oblation 
to  the  Lord.  "For  this  child  I  prayed,  and  the 
Lord  hath  given  mo  my  petition  which  I  asked 
of  him ;  therefore  also  have  I  lent  him  to  the 
Lord ;  as  long  as  he  liveth  shall  he  be  lent  unto 
the  Lord!"  David  also  consecrated  all  that  he 
had  to  the  Lord, — his  possessions  as  well  as  his 
children.     "YVTien  he  built  a  house,  he  dedicated 


108  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

it  to  the  Lord,  and  prepared  "a  psalm  and  Bong 
a1  the  dedication  of  the  house." 

Here  in  these  examples  of  Old  Testament  fami- 
ly offerings  to  God,  we  Lave  a  type  and  illustra- 
tion  of  tlic  oblations  of  the  ( Ihristian  home.  The 
Lord  does  not  ask  the  Christian  parent]  as  he  did 
Abraham,  to  build  an  altar  upon  the  Bummil  of 
some  lofty  cliff,  and  there  to  thrust  a  Bacrincial 
knife  to  the  heart  of  his  child,  and  offer  his  quiv- 
ering flesh  and  bleeding  body  a  burnt  offering  to 
him  ;  hut  he  commands  him  to  bring  his  child  to 
the  altar  of  baptism  in  his  church,  and  there  dedi- 
cate his  life,  his  talents,  his  all,  as  a  living  sacri- 
fice "holy  and  acceptable  unto  God,"  vowing 
before  witnessing  angels  and  men  that,  as  the 
steward  of  God  and  the  representative  of  the 
child,  he  will  hold  it  sacred  as  the  property  oi'  the 
Lord,  given  to  him  only  in  trust;  that  he  will 
consult  and  faithfully  execute  the  will  of  the 
Lord  concerning  the  child,  and  that  in  all  his  re- 
lations to  it.  he  will  seek  to  make  it  subserve  his 
purposes  and  refleel  his  glory. 

This  is  the  most  precious  and  acceptable  obla* 
linn  of  the  parent's  heart  and  home, — more  pre- 
cious than  gold  or  pearl--,  than  rivers  of  blood  or 
Btreams  of  oil;  and  where  there  is  a  correspond- 
ing dedication  of  all  that  belongs  to  home,  it  pro- 
motes and  preserves  the  highest  privileges  and 
the  greatest  well-being  of  the  child.    With  the 

deep  and  siil'liine  feelings  of  faith  we  should, 
therefore,  lake  our  little  ones,  in  infancy,  before 
the  Lord,  as  the  free-will  offering  of  the  Christian 


ITS   DEDICATION 


109 


home  ;  and  in  all  subsequent  periods  of  their  life 
under  the  parental  roof,  we  should  eagerly  watch, 
in  each  expanding  faculty,  in  each  growing. incli- 
nation, in  the  bent  of  each  tender  thought,  in  the 
warm  glow  of  each  feeling  and  desire,  for  some 
indications  of  the  will  of  God  concerning  their 
mission  in  this  life. 

This  leads  us  to  remark  finally,  that,  in  the 
dedication  of  our  children  to  the  Lord,  we  should 
have  reference  to  the  highest  function  within  the 
calling  of  man,  viz :  the  christian  ministry ;  or  in 
other  words,  we  should  offer  our  sons  to  God 
with  the  hope  and  prayer  that  lie  may  call  them 
to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  and  every  indication 
of  His  answer  to  our  prayer,  given  in  their  men- 
tal and  moral  fitness,  should  encourage  the  par- 
ent to  train  them  up  with  special  reference  to  that 
sacred  office. 

This,  the  state  of  the  church  and  the  many  des- 
titute and  waste  places  of  the  earth,  imperiously 
demand.  Like  the  Hebrew  mother,  we  should  at 
least  devote  one  of  our  sons  to  the  Temple-service, 
direct  his  attention  to  it,  favor  it  by  all  our  inter- 
course with  him,  and  use  all  proper  means  for  his 
preparation  for  it.  And  you  may  be  assured  that 
God  will  answer  your  prayer.  Your  ofi'ering,  if 
holy,  will  be  acceptable. 

"Even  thus,  of  old,  a  babe  was  offered  up — 
Young  Samuel,  for  the  service  of  His  Temple  ; 
Nor  He  refused  the  boon,  but  poured  on  him 
The  anointing  of  all  gifts  and  graces  meet 
For  his  high  office." 


110  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

But  alas!  how  man}*  parents  refuse  thus  to 
yield  their  sons  unto  God !  They  will  formally 
and  outwardly  dedicate  their  children  to  Him  in 
holy  baptism ;  but  afterwards  obstruct  their  way 
to  the  ministry,  yea,  even  discourage  it  for  rea- 
sons the  most  worldly  and  infidel.  They  will 
remind  them  of  its  arduous  duties  and  self-de- 
nials; they  will  remind  them  that  it  affords  no 
money  speculations,  that  the  salary  of  ministers 
is  so  small,  no  wealth  can  be  amassed  by  preach- 
ing, and  besides,  they  will  have  to  remove  so  for 
from  home.  And  thus  by  urging  such  frivolous 
objections,  they  beget  in  their  sons  a  prejudice 
against  the  ministry, — yea,  a  contempt  for  it. 
Ah,  if  preaching  were  a  money-making  busi- 
ness; if  it  opened  the  door  to  luxury  and  afflu- 
ence and  worldly  ease,  then  I  am  sure  every 
parent  would  show  the  outward  piety  of  dedi- 
cating his  sons  (and  daughters  too)  to  the  min- 
istry. Here  we  see  how  natural  affection,  mis- 
directed by  the  love  of  worldly  gain,  neutralizes 
the  promptings  of  faith.  Had  Abraham  lived 
under  the  same  Influence,  he  would  not  have 
obeyed  the  edict  of  God.  It  is  because  of  the 
dominant  spirit  of  worldlincss  in  the  Christian 
homo,  that  the  laborers  upon  the  walls  of  Zion 
are  inadequate  to  the  great  work  to  be  done,  that 
they  arc  insufficient  for  the  great  harvest  of 
souls.  And  ibis  will  ever  continue  so  long  as 
Christian  parents  refuse  to  make  an  offering  of 
their  m>u<  to  God,  and  turn  their  homes  into  a 
den  of  thieves. 


ITS    DEDICATION.  Ill 

Such  parental  reservation  of  children  for  filthy 
lucre  and  the  pleasures  of  sin  foV  a  season,  in- 
volves a  guilt  which  no  redeeming  attribute  can 
mitigate.  If  God  gave  his  only  Son  to  suffer 
and  die  upon  the  accursed  tree,  shall  we,  his 
professed  followers,  not  give  in  turn  bur  sons 
to  Him,  to  proclaim  the  glad  news  of  a  pur- 
chased and  offered  redemption?  Think  of  this, 
oh  ye  who  profess  to  be  the  parents  of  a  Christ- 
ian home,  and  have  with  the  lip  had  your  chil- 
dren dedicated  to  God  in  baptism  !  Think  that 
the  gift  of  God  has  bought  them  with  a  price, 
and  that  as  they  belong  to  Him,  you  rob  God 
when  you  withhold  them,  and  deal  with  them 
as  your  own  property,  leaving  out  of  view  the 
great  law  of  stewardship.  Mistaken  parents ! 
methinks  you  would  give  your  children  to  all 
save  to  God ;  you  would  devote  them  to  any 
thing  but  religion.  You  fit  them  for  this  life, 
choose  their  occupation,  labor  to  leave  them  a 
large  inheritance,  and  rejoice  when  they  rise  to 
eminence  in  the  world. 

But  in  all  this,  God,  religion  and  eternity  are 
cast  into  the  shade ;  you  act  towards  them  as  if 
God  had  no  claim  upon  them,  and  you  were 
under  no  obligations  to  meet  that  claim.  Think 
of  this,  ye  who  have  been  recreant  to  your  duty, 
— ye  who  have  not  followed  Abraham  to  the 
mount  of  oblation,  nor  brought  up  your  sons  as 
an  offered  Samuel.  Oh  think,  that  God  will 
demand  of  you  these  children,  and  that  if  they 
are  not  now  devoted  to  the  Lord,  you  will  not 


11 -J  Tin:  OHBXBTIAB    BOMB. 

them  to  return  to  Him  in  the  greal  da; 
final  reckoning.     May  the  momentonja  interests 
;in«l  responsibilities   of  thai    coming  day   bring 
▼on  with  your  children  around  the  altar  of  con- 
ation, and  constrain  you  there  to  aay — 

•  I  give  thee  bo  thy  <J<»1 — the  God  thai  gave  thee, 
A  well-spring  of  deep  gladness  t<>  my  heart ! 
And  precious  as  thou  art, 
And  pure  as  dew  of  1 1 ■  ri n» >ii .  He  shall  have  thee, 

My  own,  my  beautiful,  my  ondnfilwl ! 

And  thou  shalt  be  His  child  !" 


CHAPTER   XI. 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM. 


"  "Water — of  blest  purity 
Emblem— do  wc  pour  on  thee ; 
Little  one  !  regenerate  be — 
Only  by  the  crimson  flood 
Of  the  Spotless,  in  the  blood 
Of  the  very  Son  of  God  ! 
Father,  Son  and  Holy  Ghost ! 
Take  the  feeble,  take  the  lost, 
Purchased  once  at  Calvary's  cost !" 

"What  delightful  associations  cluster  around  the 
baptismal  altar  !  How  tenderly  does  the  pious 
mother  fold  her  babe  to  her  yearning  heart,  as  ahe 
devoutly  approaches  that  consecrated  spot,  and 
there  dedicates  in  and  through  this  holy  sacra- 
ment, the  child  of  her  love  and  hope,  to  Him 
who  gave  it!  What  a  holy  charge  she  there 
assumes;  -what  a  sacred  vow  ahe  there  makes; 
what  a  solemn  promise  she  there  gives;  what  a 
momentous  interest  is  entrusted  to  her  there; 
what  ix  weight  of  responsibility  is  there  laid  upon 
her! 


1 1 1  Tin-:  CHBI8TIAB   BOMB. 

Her  charge  La  an  infant  soul:  her  vow  is  to  be 
faithful  to  it:  her  promise  i>  to  train  it  ap  for 
Qod;  and  her's  will  be  the  Lasting  glory  or  the 
lasting  shame  !  These  very  engagements  and 
trusts  elevate  the  pious  parents;  difruse  a  ten- 
derness and  Bympathy  over  all  the  domestic  rela- 
tions, and  make  better  husbands,  better  wives, 
!■  parents,  and  better  children,  by  the  deep 
in sight  which  is  given  to  their  faith  in  those  mys- 
terious relations  and  mutual  obligations  which 
bind  them  together.  As  the. consecrated  water 
falls  upon  the  lace  of  the  devoted  child,  the  par- 
ents feel  the  solemn  vow  sink  deep  into  the  soul, 
and  realize  the  weight  of  that  responsibility  which 
(;<»«!  lays  upon  them. 

( iod  commands  u.s  not  only  bo  dedicate  our  chil* 
dren  to  Him.  bul  to  d<»  bO  in  the  way  lie  has  ap- 
pointed, viz.,  in  and  through  Christian  baptism. 
In  this  way  we  bring  our  Children  into  the  church, 

and  train  them  up  in  a  churchly  Way.      We  bring 

them  to  God  through  the  church,  [n  their  bap- 
tism we  have,  a-  it  were,  a  ci -u firniat ion  of  their 
dedication  by  "the  mighty  Master's  seal."  It  is 
the  link  which  hinds  our  children  to  the  church, 
the  rite  of  their  initiation  into  the  kingdom  of 
Christ,  the  sign  and  Beal  of  their  saving  relation 
to  the  .  m\  chant  of  grace.      By  it   they  are  solemnly 

apart  to  the  Bervice  of  God,  enrolled  among 
the  members  of  His  kingdom,  entitled  to  its  priv- 
ileges  and  guardian  care,  and  placed  in  the  ap- 
pointed way  of  Balvation  and  eternal  life,  receiv- 

the  Beal  ami  Buperscription  of  the  Son  of  God. 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM.  115 

This  is  indispensable  to  the  demands  of  the  Chris- 
tian faith.  To  deny  that  infants  arc  thus  included 
in  the  covenant  of  grace,  destroys  the  purity  and 
spiritual  unity  of  the  Christian  compact,  and  sub- 
verts the  foundations  and  harmony  of  the  Chris- 
tian home. 

It  is  revolting  to  the  parent's  faith  to  forbid 
his  little  ones  the  privilege  of  the  church,  and  to 
treat  them  as  aliens  from  the  covenant  of  prom- 
ise. Does  the  gospel  place  them  under  such  a  ban 
of  proscription  ?  Surely  not !  lie  who  instituted 
the  family  relation  had  special  regard  to  the  fam- 
ily in  all  the  appointments  pf  Ms  grace  JTis  com- 
mand w  like  that  of  Noah,  "  Come  thou  aud  all 
thy  house  into  the  ark."  "The  promise  is  unto 
you  and  your  children."  This  is  the  comfort  of 
the  parent,  that  his  children  are  planted  by  the 
ordinance  of  God  into  the  soil  of  grace,  where 
they  may  grow  up  as  a  tender  plant  in  the  like- 
ness of  His  death,  and  he  "like  a  tree  planted  hy 
the  rivers  of  water,  that  shall  bring  forth  his  fruit 
in  his  season;  his  leaf  shall  not  wither,  and  what- 
soever he  doeth  shall  prosper." 

Baptism  in  the  Christian  home  is  eminently 
infant  baptism.  Take  this  away,  and  you  sever 
the  strongest  cord  that  hinds  church  and  home. 
As  the  ,Irw  was  commanded  to  eireumcise  his 
child,  and  thus  bring  it  into  proper  relations 
to  the  tlieocrntical  covenant,  so  the  Christian  has 
a  similar  command  from  Christ  to  bring  his 
children,  through  the  holy  sacrament  of  bap- 
tism, to  Him.      It  is  not  our  purpose  to  discuss 


116  THE    CNKI.-TIAN    BOMB 

the  baptistic  question.  When  we  Bhall  have 
tin-own  sufficient  Light  upon  it  to  convince  the 
Christian  parent,  that  it  is  a  duty  to  have  little 
children  dedicated  t<>  God  in  baptism,  onr  plan 
Bhall  be  fully  executed.  We  must  either  admit 
infant  baptism,  or  deny  that  the  Christian  cove- 
nant includes  children,  and  that  the  parent  is 
bound  to  dedicate  them  to  God.  Eence  the  ob- 
jection brought  against  infant  baptism  can,  with 
equal  propriety,  be  urged  against  circumcision; 
for  the  latter  is  the  type  of  the  former.  Tn  bap- 
tism Christ  places  Himself  in  true  organic  rela- 
tions t<>  the  child,  and  thus  opens  up  to  it  the 
sources  from  which  alone  the  Christian  life  can 
proceed  and  develop  itself. 

The  baptism  of  our  children  is  grounded  in 

their   need  of  salvation  at   every  age  and   stage  ^\' 

development,  h  is  also  based  upon  the  very  idea 
of  Christ   Himself;   upon  primitive  Christianity ; 

Upon    the    extent    and    compass    of   the    Christian 

covenant  ;  and  upon  those  vital  relations  which 
believing  parent-  sustain  to  their  offspring.  It 
might  be  proven  from  the  commission  given  l>y 
Christ  to  ERfl  disciples  to  "preach  the  gospel  to 
aturo;"  from  Sis  language  and  conduct 
in  reference  to  children;  from  the  usage  of  the 
Apostles  and  of  the  apostolic  church.     The  idea 

and    mission    Of  Christ    Himself,  we  think,  would 

be  a  sufficient  argument  in  favor  of  infant  bap- 
tism. He  included  in  Bfis  life  the  Btage  of  child- 
hood, and  came  to  save  the  child  as  well  as  the 
man-      ) lis  own  infancy  and  childhood  are  securi- 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM.  117 

ties  for  this.  He  entered  into  and  passed  through 
all  the  various  states  and  stages  of  man's  develop- 
ment on  earth,  and  thus  became  adapted  to  the 
wants  of  every  period  of  our  life, — man's  infancy 
as  well  as  man's  maturity.  Ireneus  says,  "Christ 
Jesus  became  a  child  to  children,  a  youth  to  youth, 
and  a  man  to  man."  The  fact,  too,  that  the  bless- 
ings  of  the  covenant  of  grace  arc  extended  to  the 
children  of  believing  parents,  is  sufficient  to  prove 
the  validity  of  infant  baptism.  Peter  said  on  the 
day  of  Pentecost,  when  he  called  upon  his  hear- 
ers to  be  baptized:  "for  the  promise  is  to  you, 
and  your  children,  and  all  that  are  afar^off,  even 
as  many  as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call." 

Thus  His  gospel  excludes  none,  neither  is  it 
restricted  to  a  certain  age  or  capacity.  As  the 
child,  as  well  as  the  man,  fell  and  died  in  the 
first  Adam,  so  the  child,  as  well  as  the  man, 
can  be  made  alive  in  the  second  Adam.  As 
infants,  therefore,  are  subjects  of  grace,  why  not 
subjects  also  of  baptism  ?  As  they  are  included 
in  the  covenant,  why  not  enter  it  by  the  divinely 
constituted  sacrament  of  initiation  ?  As  they  are 
included  in  the  plan  of  salvation,  why  not  receive 
it  in  a  ehurchly  way?  If  Christ  is  the  Saviour  of 
infants,  why  not  bring  them  to  Him  through  bap- 
tism? 

Besides,  the  idea  of  following  Christ  reaches  its 
full  meaning  only  through  infant  baptism.  His 
own  infancy,  aa  we  have  already  Been,  is  a  warrant 
of  this.  Without  it  lie  cannot  penetrate  and  rule 
in  every  natural  stage  of  human  life.      Hence  a 


1  Ig  Tin:  CHRIST]  LN   HOME. 

denial  of  infant  baptism  is  a  subversion  of  the 
fundamentals  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  very 
constitution  of  the  Christian  family,  its  unity  and 
mission  mnsl  be  overthrown ;  tor  infant  baptism 
is  incorporated  with  the  nature  of  Christianity 
itself,  with  tlic  conception  and  d  -  -  of  tin- 
individual  Christian  life,  and  of  the  Christian 
family  life. 

Ami  yet  with  the  plainest  teachings  of  the  e 
j. el  before  them,  ia  it  ool  strange  that  there  are  bo 
many  virulent  enemies  to  infant  baptism?  Their 
rejection  of  it  seems  to  rest  mainly  upon  the  on- 
tenable  position  that  baptism  has  meaning  and 
e  only  when  it  is  the  Emit  of  an  antecedent, 
Belf-conscious  faith  on  the  part  of  the  Bubject,  and 
that  it  is  but  the  outward  demonstration  of  a  sepa- 
rate and  prior  participation  of  some  inward  grace. 
A  infants  have  ool  a  Belf-conscious  faith,  it  is  be- 
d,  therefore,  thai  they  are  not,  of  course,  tit 
Bubjects  of  baptism. 

There  is  a  cunning  sophistry  in  all  this.     It 
upon  tin'  Bupp  i-ltioii  thai  faith  necessarily 
demands  the  prior  development  of  Belf-consoious- 
im<  -  that  faith  is  hound  to  a  particu- 
lar age,  and  ran  be  exercised  only  after  the  full 
and   complete  development   ><\'  the  Logical   con- 
Bciousnea,  and  ia  dependent  upon  it ;   it  also  as- 
Bumefl  thai   this  faith   must    necessarily  be  exer- 
I  by  the  Bubject  of  Christian  baptism. 

Now  this  is  all  mere  assumption.    There  La  no 

BCripture  for  it.  In  all  this,  tin-  distinction  is  not 
made  between  faith  in  its  first  hud,  and  faith  in 


CHKISTIAN    BAPTISM.  119 

its  ripe  fruit.  The  first  may  exist  in  the  uncon- 
scious infant,  just  aa  undeveloped  reason  exists 
there  ;  because  natural  powers  do  not  generate 
supernatural  faith.  Faith  is  the  gift  of  God ; 
and  its  existence  docs  not  depend  upon  any  par- 
ticular stage  of  mental  development.  The  ene- 
mies of  infant  baptism  can  see  nothing  in  baptism. 
They  can  sec  no  objective  force  in  that  holy  sacra- 
ment ;  but  regard  it  as  something  merely  exter- 
nal, extraneous,  unproductive, — a  mere  unmean- 
ing form  in  which  a  prior  faith  is  pleased  to  ex- 
press itself,  as  the  conclusion  of  a  work  already 
accomplished.  The  great  error  here  lies  just  in 
this,  that  they  mistake  it  as  an  act  of  faith,  where- 
as it  is  an  act  of  Christ.  They  think  it  is  the 
formal  rite  through  which  the}-  elect  and  receive 
Christ;  whereas  it  is  the  sacrament  in  which 
Christ  elects  and  receives  them. 

If,  in  church  worship,  man  placed  himself  in  a 
relation  to  God,  without  God  placing  Himself  in 
a  relation  to  man,  then  we  might  reject  infant 
baptism.  But  this  is  not  so.  God,  in  baptism, 
places  Himself  in  a  relation  to  the  subject,  re- 
ceives the  subject  until  it  become  a  part  of  the 
organism  of  grace  in  its  subjective  and  object- 
ive force,  and  is  recognized  as  a  member  of  the 
church  of  Christ.  Now  the  falsity  of  the  posi- 
tion assumed  by  the  enemies  of  infant  baptism 
lies  just  here,  that  only  the  subjective  side  of 
baptism  is  held  up,  while  its  objective,  sacra- 
mental character  is  left  altogether  out  of  view. 
It  reverses  the  relative  positions  of  faith  and  bap- 


120 


Tin:   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


ti.-ni.  making  the  former  to  take  tin-  place  of  the 
latter,  and  holding  that  any  one  dissociated  with 
the  church,  can  receive  and  exercise  a  true  liv- 
ing faith,  which  overthrows  the  very  ides  of  the 
chnrch  itsel£  It  makes  faith  first,  baptism  sec- 
ond, entering  the  church  third  ;  whereas  baptism 
comes  before  the  conscious  faith  of  the  subject. 
If  so,  then  why  object  to  infant  baptism? 

Baptism  is  that  sacrament  by  means  of  which 


?].<•  order  of  divine  errace  is  continued. 


Ii  gen- 


erates faith,  and  its  development  is  from  authori- 
tative, to  free,  personal  faith.  "What  the  per- 
sonal election  of  Christ  was  to  the  first  circle 
<>f  disciples,  that  baptism  is  for  the  successive 
church,  the  divine  fact  through  which  Christ 
gives  to  His  church  its  true  and  eternal  begin- 
ning in  tin-  individual."  Tf  so,  then  is  it  not 
plain  that  baptism  goes  before  the  self-conscious 
faith  "i*  the  subject '(  And  if  this  church-found- 
ing sacrament  brings  your  child  into  a  living  and 
sa\  i 1 1 lt  relation  to  the  church,  then  why  deny  it 
that  baptism?  Dan  you  reverse  the  divine  pro- 
cedure which  Gk)d  has  ordained  for  the  salvation 
of  Hi-  people?  And  if  Christ  is  related  to  the 
individual  only  through  the  general:  if  lie  is  re- 
lated  to  the  members  only  through  the  body,  and 
having  fellowship  with  them  only  as  the  Head  of 
that  body,  then  ;s  it  not  plain  that  your  children, 
in  order  to  come  to  Him  as  such,  to  he  incorpo- 
rated with  Him  and  related  to  Him  in  a  saving 
way,  must  come  to  Him  through  the  church, — 
must  become  a  member  of  it,  and  that  too  in  the 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM. 


121 


maimer  and  through  the  medium  He  has  pre- 
scribed, viz.,  baptism  ? 

He  who,  for  the  reason,  therefore,  that  children 
can  have  no  self-conscious  faith,  refuses  to  have 
them  baptized,  but  exposes  his  ignorance  of  the 
divine  procedure  of  grace  as  developed  in  the 
church,  of  the  true  moral  relation  between  par- 
ent and  child,  and  of  the  scripture  idea  of  the 
Christian  home.  Why  not  for  the  very  same  rea- 
son refuse  to  teach  them,  to  have  them  pray,  to 
bring  them  up  to  church  service  '(  Yea,  why  not 
deny  to  them  salvation  itself?  For  the  very  same 
reason  for  which  you  reject  infant  baptism,  you 
must  also  reject  infant  salvation  ;  tor  faith  is  held 
up  in  the  Word  of  God  as  a  qualification  for  sal- 
vation with  more  emphasis  than  as  a  qualification 
for  baptism.  Hence  if  }tou  say  that  infants  can- 
not be  baptized  because  incapable  of  faith,  you 
must  also  say,  by  a  parity  of  reasoning,  that  in- 
fants cannot  be  saved,  because  incapable  of  faith. 

This  is  a  dilemma,  and  to  avoid  it,  some  ene- 
mies to  infant  baptism  have  even  confessed  that 
they  sec  no  hope  for  the  salvation  of  children. 
Thus  Dr.  Alexander  Carson  says,  "The  gospel 
has  nothing  to  do  with  infants.  It  is  good  news, 
but  to  infants  it  is  no  news  at  all.  None  can 
be  saved  by  the  gospel  who  do  not  believe  it! 
Consequently  by  the  gospel  no  infants  can  lie 
saved!"'  But  if  out  of  Christ  there  is  no  sal- 
vation, then  tell  me,  how  will  infants  be  saved? 
We  have  n<>  answer  from  these  enemies,  yea, 
there  is  no  answer  ! 
G 


1:2:2  TUB  <  iikistian  romi. 

Chriatian  parental  what  think  yon  of  this? 
When  bending  over  the  grave  of  a  beloved  child, 
■with  the  cherished  hope  <>f  meeting  it  in  heaven, 
how  would  Bnch  intelligence  as  thia  startle  yon 
from  your  dream  of  reunion  there,  and  cast  a  deep 
pall  of  desolation  around  your  sorrowing  hearts? 
Do*  -  oot  the  parent's  faith  forbid  the  intrusion  of 
a  doctrine  ao  revolting  as  thia?  Though  you  have 
been  in  your  home,  the  divinely  appointed  repre- 
sentative of  your  child,  and  in  its  baptism  exer- 
cised faith  in  its  behalf,  on  the  ground  of  those 
natural  and  moral  relatione  which  the  Lord  has 
constituted  between  yon  and  your  child,  yet  in 
this  Btartling  dogma  of  the  enemies  of  its  bap- 
tism,  you  find  a  virtual  denial  of  the  existence  of 
Buch  moral  relations  and  parental  vicarage ;  yea, 
a  denial  "i*  parental  stewardship  and  of  the  reli- 
gious ministryof  the  Christian  home.  The  revul- 
sion with  which  the  Christian  heart  receives  Mich 
a  denial  of  infant  baptism  is  at  least  a  presump- 
tive evidence  againsl  it.  But  we  think  enough 
baa  been  said  t<>  lay  the  foundation  of  some  prac- 
tical comments  upon  the  suhject  of  ( Jhristian  bap- 
tism. 

If  it  i-  a  fact    that  infant-  are  proper  Subjects  of 

baptiam,  then  it  i-  the  duty  of  Christian  parents 
to  have  thorn  baptized.  It  is  not  only  a  duty,  but 
a  delightful  privilege,  to  consecrate  them  to  God 
in  a  perpetual  covenant  never  to  he  forgotten, 
regarding  them  as  the  members  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ,  and  so  called  to  he  <o>d*s  children  by 
adoption  and  grace. 


CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM.  123 

Their  baptism  involves  many  parental  duties 
and  responsibilities.  If  it  is  both  a  sign  and  a 
seal  of  the  covenant  of  grace,  and  a  means  of 
grace,  so  that  the  parent's  faith,  in  their  baptism, 
places  the  child  in  covenant  relation  to  the  Incar- 
nate "Word,  through  the  life-giving  Spirit,  then  it 
is  plain  that  the  parent  is  bound  to  secure  for  the 
child  those  blessings  which  that  baptism  contem- 
plates, and  which  hang  upon  the  exercise  of  a  re- 
ceiving faith.  This  sacrament  gives  the  child  a 
church  ly  claim  upon  parental  interposition  in  its 
behalf,  in  all  things  pertaining  to  its  spiritual  cul- 
ture,— in  a  true  religious  training,  in  a  proper 
direction  in  the  use  of  the  means  of  grace,  in 
a  holy  Christian  example.  Here  it  is  the  par- 
ent's duty  to  represent  the  church,  to  act  for  the 
church  in  religious  ministrations  to  the  child,  to 
be  the  steward  of  the  church  in  the  Christian 
home,  to  rear  up  the  child  for  a  responsible  mem- 
bership. 

No. parent,  therefore,  who  neglects  the  baptism 
of  the  child,  can  have  "the  answer  of  a  good  con- 
science towards  God."  If  we  are  satisfied  to  have 
our  In  tines  separate  from  the  church;  if  we  arc 
satisfied  with  individualistic,  disembodied,  unas- 
BOciated  Christianity, — a  religion  that  owns  no 
church,  but  which  has  its  origin,  root  and  ma- 
turity in  the  self-conscious  activity  of  the  indi- 
vidual, we  may  then  neglect  this  duty.  But  in 
doing  so,  to  be  consistent,  we  must  also  discard  the 
sister  ordinance  of  the  Lord's  supper,  yea,  all  the 
churchly  means  of  grace;  yea,  the  church  itself; 


121  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    BOMB. 

for  why  repudiate  one  ordinance,  —  one  idea  of 
associated  Christianity,  and  not  all  the  others! 

That  baptism  is  greatly  abnsed  and  neglected, 
none  will  deny.  Tt  is  often  abased  by  neglect  of 
the  proper  time  of  its  administration.  The  earli* 
esl  period  of  infancy  is  the  proper  time  j  Cor  then 
there  will  be  a  proper  correspondence  in  time 
between  the  dedication  and  the  baptism.  In  this 
we  have  an  example  from  Jewish  circumcision. 
The  pious  Jew  took  the  infant  when  it  was  but 
eight  days  old,  and  had  it  circumcised.  But 
many  Christian  parents  defer  the  baptism  of 
their  children  until  late  childhood,  while  their 
vows  of  dedication  are  left  in  mere  naked  feeling 
and  resolution,  having  no  Bacramental  force  and 
expression  ;  and  as  a  consequence  will  grow  cold 
and  indifferent.  When  parents  thus  delay  hav- 
ing: their  children  brought  within  the  fold  of  God 
and  the  bosom  of  the  church,  they  presume  to  be 

wiser    than    Cod.    and    oppose    their    own    weak 

reason  to  His  word  and  promises. 

Baptism  is  often  abused,  also,  by  being  used 
,'i-  ;i  mere  habit,  an  unmeaning  form,  without  a 
proper  Bense  of;  its  significance,  importance,  du- 
ties and  responsibilities.  It  is  administered  be- 
cause others  do  the  same, — because  customary 
among  most  church  members,  and  because  per- 
haps it  looks  like  an  adherence  to  the  outward 
of  Christianity  and  the  church  at  least.  When 
they  have  thus  obeyed  the  law  of  habit,  and  gird- 
ed themselves  with  the  formula  of  parental  duty, 
they  feel  they  have  done  enough;    and  perhaps 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM.  125 

neither  their  children  nor  the  vows  they  as- 
sumed at  their  baptism  ever  after  recur  to  them 
as  objects  of  specific  duty. 

But  we  would  remind  such  parents,  that  habit 
is  not  always  duty,  and  our  adherence  to  habit 
does  not  prove  our  sincerity  and  the  truthfulness 
of  our  purpose.  It  does  not  always  imply  "the 
answer  of  a  good  conscience  towards  God."  If 
having  our  children  baptized  is  simple  obedience 
to  the  law  of  habit,  it  is  not  the  performance  of 
a  parental  duty,  but  the  abuse  of  a  blessed  priv- 
ilege ;  there  is  in  it  all  no  living  ehurchly  expres- 
sion of  willing  vows.  In  this  way  we  only  reach 
its  outward  form,  and  we  do  that,  not  because  of 
its  inherent  worth,  not  because  of  a  duty  and 
privilege ;  but  because  we  desire  to  cope  with 
others,  and  decorate  our  religion  in  the  popular 
dress  of  other  people's  habits. 

Baptism  is  also  abused  by  mistaking  the  ob- 
ject and  design  of  its  administration.  Why  do 
many  parents  have  their  children  baptized  ?  Be- 
cause they  wish  to  express  their  vows  of  dedica- 
tion in  that  sacramental  form  and  way  which 
God  has  appointed  ?  Because  they  desire  to 
bring  them  into  the  fold  and  bosom  of  the 
church,  and  place  them  in  saving  relations  to 
the  means  of  grace  ?  Alas,  no!  but  too  often 
because  they  make  their  baptism  the  mere  oc- 
casion of  giving  them,  in  a  formal,  public  way, 
their  Christian  names.  They  christen  their 
children  to  give  them  a  name;  and  often  with 
them  this  holy  sacrament  is  as   empty   as   the 


126 


THE    CHRISTIAN    BOMB. 


name.  Their  baptism,  in  their  view,  is  but  the 
Beating  and  confirming  the  name  they  had  before 
chosen  for  tin-  child  ;  and  when  this  is  done  they 
have  no  more  thought  of  the  baptism.  With 
them  the  baptism  of  their  children  is  the  ordi- 
nance of  name-giving.  Before  it  takes  place 
they  are  busied  about  getting  a  name  from  the 
most  approved  and  fashionable  novels  of  the 
day.  This  takes  the  place  <>t'  dedication.  Their 
prior  thoughts  are  all  absorbed  in  getting  a 
Btrange,  new-fangled  name. — such  an  one  as  will 
carry  you  away  by  association  to  some  love-sick 
tale,  or  remind  you  of  the  burning  <>('  Rome,  or 
Borne  other  deed  which  lias  disgraced  humanity. 
And  then  as  soon  as  this  is  done,  they  li.\  upon 
some  auspicious  occasion  when  either  in  the 
church  or  in  tin-  presence  of  a  select  company 
at  home,  dor  children  rvy  now-a-days  too  much 
to  bring  them  to  church)  they  have  their  pastor 
to  baptize  them. 

Perhaps  a  great  feast  is  prepared;  godfathers 
and  godmothers  (if  they  have  the  warrant  of 
Borne  valuable  presents)  are  chosen;  and  then 
in  all  the  glare  ami  parade  of  fashion,  they  Lave 

the   ordinance   administered.      And    what,  then   is 

the  first  joyful  rvy  of  the  fond  parents,  after  the 
solemn  ceremony  is  ended?    Why  "now.  dear, 

you   have  your   name!"      And    this   is   the   end, — 

the  finale  of*  the  vows   there  made  before 
Grod, — the  end  of  all  until  Cod  shall  call  them 

to  ace iint  ! 

It  requires  but  very  tittle  discrimination  to  see 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM.  127 

that  in  all  this  the  nature,  design,  and  obligations 
of  Christian  baptism  are  loft  totally  out  of  view. 
They  do  not  here  appreciate  this  ordinance  as  a 
channel  for  the  communication  of  God's  grace  to 
their  children.  When  baptized  they  do  not  re- 
gard them  as  having  been  received  into  gracious 
relation  to  God,  as  plants  in  the  Lord's  vineyard, 
as  having  put  on  Christ,  and  as  having  their  in- 
grafting into  Him  not  only  signified  but  scaled. 
Tims  being  undervalued,  it  is,  as  a  consequence, 
abused  and  neglected. 

The  great  neglect  of  Christian  baptism  is  doubt- 
less owing  to  the  low,  unseriptural  views  of  its 
nature  and  practical  importance  ;  for  if  they  real- 
ized its  relations  to  the  plan  of  salvation,  and  its 
office  in  the  appropriation  of  that  salvation  to 
their  children,  they  would  not  permit  them  to 
grow  up  nnbaptized,  neither  would  they  be  rec- 
reant to  the  solemn  duties  which  are  binding 
upon  the  parent  after  its  administration.  But 
upon  the  subject,  of  baptism  itself,  we  have  seen 
that  there  is  great  laxity  of  feeling  and  opinion. 

The  spirit  of  our  fathers  upon  this  point  is  be- 
coming so  diluted  that  we  can  scarcely  discern 
any  longer  a  vestige  of  the  good  old  landmarks 
of  their  sacramental  character.  Instead  of  walk- 
ing in  them,  Christians  are  now  tailing  a  prey  to  a 
latitudinarian  spirit  of  the  most  destructive  kind. 
Tbey  are,  in  leaving  these  old  landmarks,  falling 
into  the  clutches  of  rationalism  and  radicalism, 
which  will  ere  long  leave  their  homes  and  their 
church 


128  Tin;  christian  BOKE. 

V  wreck  el  random  driven, 
Without  one  glini]  on  <>r  of  heaven  !" 

Even  ministers  themselves  seem  to  grow  indif- 
ferent to  this  wide-spread  and  growing  evil.  They 
hardly  ever  utter  a  word  of  warning  from  the  pul- 
pit against  it.  Their  members  may  be  known  by 
them  to  neglect  the  baptism  of  their  children;  and 
\ct  by  their  silence  they  wink  at  this  dereliction; 
ami  wlit-ii  they  have  occasion  to  speak  o\'  this  ordi- 
nance, many  advert  to  it  as  a  mere  sign*  as  some- 
thing only  outward,  no1  communicating  an  in- 
visible grace,  not  as  a  seal  of  the  new  covenant, 
ingrafting  into  Christ.  No  wonder  when  this 
holy  sacrament  is  thus  disparagingly  Bpoken  ot', 
that  Christian  parents  will  neglect  it  practically, 
redundancy  in  tin-  church,  —  as  a  tradition 
coming  in  it-  last  wailing  cry  from  ages  and  forms 
departed,  —  as  a  church  rite  marked  obsolete,  as 
an  old  ceremonial  savoring  of  old  Jewish  shackles, 
embodying  no  substantial  grace,  and  unlit  tor  tins 
•  f  railroad  pi  ion  and  gospel  libertinism. 

Will  any  on,,  deny  the  extent  ot"  Buch  a  spirit  in 
the  church  and  homes  of  the  presenl  day?  Let 
li'un  refer  to  church  statistics,  where  lie  may  re- 
Qsomc  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  this  evil.  In 
them  \\  e  can  see  the  extent  to  which  parents  have 
neglected  the  baptism  of  their  children.  We  take 
from  a  note  in  the  "Mercersburg  Review"  the 
following  statistical  items:  "The  presbytery  of 
Londonderry  reports  but  one  baptism  to  sixty-four 
communicants;  the  presbytery  of  Buffalo  city,  the 


CHRISTIAN    BAPTISM.  129 

same ;  the  presbytery  of  Rochester  city,  one  to 
forty-six ;  the  presbytery  of  Michigan,  one  to 
seventy-seven  ;  the  presbytery  of  Columbus,  one 
to  thirty.  In  the  presbytery  of  New  Brunswick, 
there  are  three  churches  which  report  thus :  one 
reports  three  hundred  and  forty-three  communi- 
cants, aud  three  baptisms  ;  another  reports  three 
hundred  and  forty  communicants,  and  two  bap- 
tisms. In  Philadelphia,  one  church  reports  three 
hundred  and  three  communicants,  and  seven  bap- 
tisms ;  another,  two  hundred  and  eighty-seven 
communicants,  and  one  baptism." 

These  statistics  speak  volumes.  They  tell  us 
how  Christian  parents  neglect  the  baptism  of 
their  children,  and  also  how  the  church  winks 
at  it.  And  from  this  neglect  we  can  easily  infer 
their  indifference  to  it.  If  we  refer  to  the  sta- 
tistics of  all  other  churches,  we  shall  witness  a 
similar  neglect.  No  branch  of  the  church  now 
is  free  from  the  imputation  of  such  neglect.  It 
is  now  difficult  indeed,  to  induce  parents  to  have 
their  children  baptized,  because  they  think  it  is 
no  use!  "Let  them  wait,"  say  the}*,  -'till  they 
grow  up,  and  then  they  will  know  more  about 
it !"  This  shows  us  where  the  parent  stands, 
viz.,  in  an  unchurchly  state,  and  radical  to  the 
very  core.  It  shows  us  what  that  influence  is, 
which  is  at  work  upon  his  mind.  "He  will 
know  more  about  it !" — -just  as  if  that  in  religion 
is  worthless  until  wc  know  all  about  it.  Bap- 
tism then  is  not  worth  anything  until  the  child 
understands  all  about  it!  In  that  parental  utter- 
*6 


1  THE    0HRI8TIAH    HOME. 

anre  we  hear  the  wildest   shout  of  triumphant 
rationalism  ! 

But  again,  baptism  la  often  abused  by  parents] 
unfaithfulness  to  its  obligations.  In  the  baptism 
of  their  children,  parents  solemnly  vow  to  bring 
them  up  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord,  to  train 
them  up  in  His  holy  ways,  to  teach  them  by 
precept  and  example,  to  pray  for  them  and  teach 
them  the  privilege!  of  prayer.  And  yet  how 
grossly  are  these  solemn  vows  left  unperformed, 
and  even  never  thought  of  in  all  after  life!  Per- 
haps the  very  Opposite  course  is  taken  even  on 
the  day  of  baptism.  Parents  !  by  this  you  en- 
danger your  <>wu  souls  as  well  as  the  souk  of 
your  children.  How  will  the  memory  of  such 
neglected  duty  and  privilege  sink  with  deepen- 
ing anguish  in  your  souls,  when  you  shall  he 
called  hence  to  answer  to  God  for  your  parental 
ardship!  Be  nol  deceived;  God  is  not 
mo.ked;  neither  will  he  hold  you  guiltless  when 

you  thus  outrage  His  holy  sacrament . 

Baptism  is  often  abused  by  the  unfaithfulness 
of  children  to  its  privileges,  influences  and  bless- 
ings. Many  children  fighl  against  these,  prevent 
ats  from  performing  their  duties,  and  repel 
all  the  overtures  of  the  Christian  home,  all  the 
offers  of  the  Spirit's  baptism,  abandoning  the 
means  of  grace,  refusing  to  assume  the  baptismal 
engagemenl  taken  for  them  by  their  parents; 
and  thus,  bo  far  as  they  are  concerned,  undo  and 
neutralize  what  their  parents  did  for  them.      Oh, 

ye  baptized  children, — ye  to  whom  the  holy  min- 


CHRISTIAN   BAPTISM.  131 

istry  of  home  has  been  faithfully  applied, — know 
ye  not  that  the  frowns  of  abused  heaven  are  upon 
you,  and  that  the  memory  of  your  rebellion 
against  the  prerogatives  of  the  family,  will  con- 
stitute an  ingredient  in  your  cup  of  woe  ?  The 
privilege  of  baptism  lays  you  under  solemn  req- 
uisition. If  unfaithful  to  it,  it  will  be  your  con- 
demnation, and  add  new  fuel  to  the  flame  of  a 
burning  conscience. 

Parents  and  children  !  be  faithful  to  this  holy 
ordinance  of  God.  It  is  a  solemn  service.  You 
should  approach  the  baptismal  font  with  a  trem- 
bling step  and  a  consecrated  heart.  And  what 
a  solemn  moment  it  is,  when  you  take  your  child 
away  from  that  altar !  There  you  gave  it  up  to 
God, — dedicated  it  to  His  service ;  and  there  in 
turn  He  commits  it  to  you  in  trust,  saying  to  you 
as  Pharaoh's  daughter  said  to  the  mother  of  Mo- 
ses, "  Take  this  child  and  nurse  it  for  me,  and  I 
will  pay  thee  thy  wages,"  and  you  bore  it  away, 
as  did  that  faithful  mother,  to  bring  it  up  for 
God.  There  you  solemnly  promised  that  in 
training  that  child,  the  will  of  God  should  be 
your  will,  and  the  law  of  all  your  conduct 
towards  it.  You  can  never  forget  that  solemn 
transaction,  and  how  you  there  vowed  before 
witnessing  men  and  angels  that  you  would  be 
faithful  to  the  little  one  God  has  given  you. 
What  now  has  been  the  result?  Eternity  will 
answer. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

CHRISTIAN    NAMES. 

"  She  named  the  child  Ichabod." — 1  Samuel. 

"  Thus  was  tho  building  left 
JTnliculous,  and  the  work  confusion  named." 

Christian  baptism  Buggests  Christian  names. 
This  introduces  ns  to  an  important  topic,  viz.,  the 
kind  of  names  Christian  parents  should  give  to 
their  children  al  their  baptism.  Baptismal  names 
are  indeed  sn  important  item  of  the  christian 
Inline.  Much  more  depends  upon  them  than  we 
jlit  of  the  subject,  disposed  to  grant. 

Christianity  eminently  includes  the  great  law 
of  correspondence  between  its  inward  spirit  and 
its  outward  form.  Its  form  and  contents  cannot 
eparated.  The  principle  of  fitness,  it  every- 
where exhibits;  and  hence  its  nomenclature  is 
the  Iniald  of  its  spirit  and  truth.  The  names 
that  religion  has  given  to  her  followers  signify 
Borne  principle  of  association  between  them. 
They  were  adopted    to   designate   some  fact  in 


CHRISTIAN   NAMES.  133 

• 

the  history  of  the  individual,  or  in  his  relation 
to  the  church.  Hence  the  names  adopted  for 
the  children  of  the  Christian  home  should  be 
the  utterance  of  some  fact  or  calling  which  be- 
longs to  that  home.  Their  name  is  one  of  the 
first  things  which  children  know,  and  hence  it 
makes  a  deep  impression  upon  them.  And  as 
our  Christian  names  are  given  to  us  at  the  time 
of  our  baptism,  one  would  think  that  there  is 
always  a  correspondence  between  the  name  and 
some  fact  or  interest  connected  with  the  occasion. 
We  should  then  receive  a  Christian  name,  a  name 
wV.ch  does  not  bind  us  by  the  laws  of  association 
to  what  is  evil  either  in  the  past  or  the  present, 
but  which  indicates  a  relation  to  some  precious 
boon  involved  in  the  dedication  of  the  child  to 
God. 

Is  this  always  so  ?  By  no  means.  It  once  was. 
It  was  so  in  the  Hebrew  home  and  in  the  families 
of  the  apostolic  age.  But  in  this  day  of  parental 
rage  after  new-fangled  things  and  names,  taken 
from  works  of  fiction  and  novels  of  doubtful 
character,  we  find  that  parents  care  but  very 
little  about  the  baptismal  name  being  the  herald 
of  a  religious  fact.  "What  is  in  a  name?"  was 
a  question  propounded  by  a  poet.  His  answer 
was  "  nothing!" 

"  That  which  we  call  a  rose 
By  any  other  name  would  smell  as  sweet." 

The  principle  here  evolved  is  false.  There  is 
much  in  a  name ;  and  at  the  creation  names  were 


134  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

not  mechanically  given  to  things;  but  there  was 
a  vital  correspondence  betweeB  the  name  and  tho 
thing  named.  Mnch  depends  upon  the  name. 
It  exerts  a  potent  influence  for  good  or  for  evil 
upon  the  hearer  and  upou  all  around  him. 

Primarily,  a  name  supposed  some  correspond- 
ence between  its  meaning  and  the  person  who 
bore  it.  Hence  the  name  should  not  be  arbitrary 
in  its  application,  but  should  "link  its  fitness  to 
idea,"  and  with  the  person,  run  in  parallel  courses. 

"  For  mind  is  apt  and  quick  to  wed  ideas  and  names  together, 
Nor  stoppcth  its  perceptions  to  be  curious  of  priorities." 

Nebuchadnezzar,  king  of  Babylon,  felt  that. 
practically  there  was  much  in  a  name,  when  he 
heathenized  the  names  of  the  young  I  [ebrew  cap- 
tives. By  this  he  thought  to  detach  them  from 
their  Hebrew  associations.  God  was  in  each  of 
their  original  nanus,  and  in  this  way  they  were 
reminded  of  their  religion.  Bu1  the  names  this 
Chaldee  king  gave  them  were  either  social  or  al- 
luded to  the  idolatry  of  Babylon.  Their  Hebrew 
names  were  to  them  witnesses  for  (Jod,  memen- 
of  the  faith  of  their  fathers ;  hence  the  king, 
to  destroy  their  influence,  called  Daniel,  Belte- 
shazzar,  i.  e.  "the  treasurer  of  the  god  Bel;" 
Ilannaiiiah  he  called  Shadrach,  i.  c.  "the  mes- 
senger of  the  king;"  Mishael  he  called  Mc- 
ehach,  i.  e.  "the  devotee  of  the  goddess  She- 
sach."  II-'  showed  his  cunning  in  this,  and  a 
historical  testimony  to  the  potent  influence  of  a 
name. 


CHRISTIAN    NAMES. 


136 


By  this  same  rule  of  correspondence,  Adam 
doubtless  named,  by  order  of  his  Creator,  the 
things  of  nature  as  they  struck  his  senses. 

"  He  specified  the  partridge  by  her  cry,  and  the  forest  prowler 
by  his  roving, 

The  tree  by  its  use,  and  the  flower  by  its  beauty,  and  every- 
thing according  to  its  truth." 

The  Hebrews  obeyed  the  same  law  in  naming 
their  children.     With  them  there  was  a  sacred 
importance  attached   to   the  giving  of  a  name. 
For  every  chosen  name  they  had  a  reason  which 
involved  the  person's  life,   character  or  destiny. 
Adam  named  the  companion  of  his  bosom,  "wo- 
man because  she  was  taken  out  of  man."      He 
called  "his  wife's  name  Eve,  because  she  was 
the  mother  of  all  living."     Eve  called  her  first- 
born Cain  (possession)  "because  I  have  gotten 
a  man  from  the  Lord."     She  called  another  son 
Seth  (appointed,)  "for  God  hath  appointed  me 
another  seed  instead  of  Abel,  whom  Cain  slew." 
Samuel  was  so  named  because  he  was  "asked 
of  and  sent  to  God."     God  Himself  often  gave 
names  to  His  people;  and  each  name  thus  given, 
conveyed  a  promise,  or  taught  some  rule  of  life, 
or  bore  some  divine  memorial,  or  indicated  some 
calling  of  the  person  named.      Says  Dr.  Ivrum- 
macher  on  this  point:  "Names  were  to  the  peo- 
ple like  memoranda,  and  like  the  bells  on  the 
garments  of  the  priests,  reminding  them  of  tho 
Lord  and  His  government,  and  furnishing  matter 
for  a  variety  of  salutary  reflections.     To  the  re- 


136  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

reivers  of  them  they  ministered  consolation  and 
strength,  warning  and  encouragement ;   and  to 

others  they  served  to  attract  the  attention  and 
heart  of  God."  This  was  right,  and  fully  ac- 
corded with  the  economy  of  the  Hebrew  home, 
and  with  the  conception  of  language  itself. 

Would  that  the  Christian  home  followed  her 
pious  example!  But  Christians  now  are  too 
much  under  the  influence  of  irreligious  fashion. 
Instead  of  giving  their  children  those  good  old  re- 
ligious names  which  their  fathers  bore,  and  which 
are  endeared  to  us  by  many  hallowed  associations, 
they  now  repudiate  them  with  a  sneer  as  too  vul- 
gar and  tasteless.  They  are  out  of  fashion,  too 
common,  don't  lead  us  into  a  labyrinth  of  love- 
scrapes  and  scenes  of  refined  iniquity,  and  are 
now  only  fit  for  a  servant. 

Hence  instead  of  resorting  to  the  bible  for  a 
name,  these  sentimental  parents  will  pore  over 
filthy  novels,  or  catch  at  some  foreign  accent, 
to  get  a  name  which  may  have  a  fashionable 
sound,  and  a  claim  upon  the  prevailing  taste  of 
the  times,  and  which  may  remind  one  of  the 
battles  of  some  ambitious  general,  or  of  the 
adventures  of  some  love-siek  swain,  or  of  the 
tragic  deeds  of  some  fashionable  libertine! 

Ami  when  such  a  name  is  found  to  suit  the  ear 
of  fashion  and  of  folly,  it  is  applied  to  the  child, 
ami  reiterated  by  the  minister  before  the  baptis- 
mal font;  and  as  often  as  it  is  afterwards  repeated 
it  reminds  one  perhaps  of  deeds' which  put  mod- 
esty to  blush,  and  startle  the  car  of  justice  and 


CHRISTIAN   NAMES.  187 

humanity.  "What  a  burning  shame  is  this  to  the 
Christian  home  !  The  child  who  is  cursed  with 
such  a  name  has  ever  before  him  the  memoran- 
dum of  his  parent's  folly,  and  as  a  recognized  ex- 
ample, the  character  of  him  after  whom  he  has 
been  named.  As  often  as  he  is  hailed  by  it,  lie 
blushes  to  think  that  he  has  been  called  by  pious 
parents  after  one  who,  perhaps,  has  turned  many 
a  home  into  desolation,  and  disgraced  and  blighted 
forever  the  fond  hopes  and  joys  of  the  young  and 
old. 

Have  thoughts  and  associations  like  these  no 
demoralizing  influence  ?  How  can  parents  ad- 
monish their  children  against  novel  reading  after 
they  have  taken  their  names  from  novels  ?  The 
giving  of  Christian  names  at  the  present  time  is 
indeed  a  ridiculous  farce,  an  insult  to  Christianity, 
and  a  representation  of  stoical  infidelity  before  the 
baptismal  altar.  It  is  there  an  act  of  the  Babylo- 
nish king  to  heathenize  the  child.  We  might 
almost  say  that  the  folly  has  become  a  rage.  The 
rage  for  new  names  (.specially, — names  which  do 
not  adorn  the  sacred  page,  nor  cany  us  back  to 
the  times  and  faith  of  our  fathers,  but  which  have 
gained  notoriety  in  the  world  of  fiction,  and  asso- 
ciate us  with  the  lover's  affrays  and  with  the  des- 
perado's feats, — these  arc  the  names  which  Chris- 
tian parents  too  often  seek  with  avidity  for  their 
children.  If  you  were  to  judge  their  homes  by 
these  names,  you  would  think  yourself  in  a  Turk- 
ish seraglio,  or  amid  the  voluptuous  scenes  of  a 
Parisian  court,  or  in  the  bosom  of  a  heathen  i'ani- 


108  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

ily.  "What,  for  instance,  is  there  about  such  names 
as  Nero,  Csesar,  Pompey,  Punch,  that  would  re- 
mind y<>u  that  you  were  in  a  Christian  home? 

It  is  often  disgusting;  too,  to  see  how  some 
Christian  parents,  who  live  in  humble  life,  seek 
to  ape,  in  their  children,  the  empty  Bounding  titles 
of  the  world.  They  only  show  their  vanity  and 
weakness,  and  often  bring  ridicule  upon  their  chil- 
dren; for — 

"  To  lend  the  low-born  noble  names,  is  to  shed  upon  them 

ridicule  and  evil ; 
Yea,  many  ■weeds  run  rank  in  pride,  if  men  have  dubbed 

them  cedars, 
And  to  herald  common  mediocrity  with  the  noisy  notes  of 

tame, 
Tendctli  to  its  deeper  scorn,  as  if  it  were  to  call  the  mole  a 

mammoth.11 

When  we  thus  give  our  children  names  associated 
with  battle-fields,  empty  titles,  brilliant  honors, 
and  Lucrative  offices, — positions  in  life  which  they 
can  never  exped  to  reach,  and  which,  if  they  did, 
would  not  do  honor  to  the  child  of  a  Christian 
family,  we  do  them  great  injury;  we  fasten  in 
them  feelings  the  most  disastrous,  and  draw  out 
propensities  unbecoming  the  child  devoted  to  the 
Lord,  breeding  in  his  soul  a  peevish  repining  at 
his  station.  Alas!  that  Christian  homes  should 
ever  become  so  servile  in  their  devotions  to  the 
rotten  Bentiments  and  flimsy  interests  of  mis- 
guided and  perverted  fashion !  Her  smile  in 
your  home  is  that  of  a  harlot;  her  touch  is  the 


CHRISTIAN    NAMES.  139 

withering  blight  of  corruption ;  her  dominion  is 
the  desolation  of  family  hopes  and  the  extermina- 
tion of  those  sacred  prerogatives  with  which  the 
Lord  has  invested  the  Christian  fireside.  The  ball 
will  take  the  place  of  prayer;  novels  will  take  the 
place  of  the  bible;  favorites  will  take  the  place 
of  husbands  and  wives ;  and  the  children  will  re- 
gard their  parents  only  as  their  masters. 

Christian  parents  should,  therefore,  give  suita- 
ble names  to  their  children,  that  is,  such  names  as 
will  correspond  with  their  state,  character  and  re- 
lations to  God, — names  which  do  not  suggest  the 
idea  of  war,  rapine,  humbug,  romance,  and  sen- 
suality, but  which  are  associated  with  the  Chris- 
tian life  and  calling,  and  which  serve  as  a  true 
index  to  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  parental 
fireside.  Reason,  as  well  as  faith,  will  dictate  such 
a  choice ;  for 

14  There  is  wisdom  in  calling  a  thing  fitly;  names  should  note 

particulars 
Through  a  character  obvious  to  all  men,  and  worthy  of  their 

instant  acceptation." 

Our  name  is  the  first  and  the  last  possession  at 
our  disposal.  It  determines  from  the  days  of 
childhood  our  inclinations.  It  employs  our  at- 
tention through  life,  and  even  transports  us  be- 
yond the  grave.  Hence  we  should  .give  appro- 
priate names  to  our  children, — such  as  will  inter- 
est them,  and  neither  be  a  reproach,  on  the  one 
Land,  nor  reach  to  unattainable  and  unworthy 
heights,   on   the   other ;    for   the   mind   of  your 


140  THE    CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

child  will  take  a  bias,  from  its  name,  to  good 
or  to  evil. 

Why  not  adopt  scriptural  names  for  them  ? 
Are  they  not  as  beautiful  as  other  names?  They 
are.  And  is  not  their  influence  as  salutary?  It 
is.  And  are  they  not  more  suitable  for  the  Chris- 
tian home  than  any  other?  They  are.  Where 
is  there  a  more  lovely  name  than  Mary, — lovely 
in  its  utterance,  and  thrice  lovely  in  the  glow- 
ing memories  which  cluster  around  it,  and  in 
the  hallowed  home-associations  it  awakens  in 
tlic  Christian  heart,  drawing  us  at  once  to  the 
feet  of  Jesus,  where  a  Mary  sat  in  confiding 
pupilage,  and  scaled  her  instructions  and  grati- 
tude with  the  tear-drop  that  glowed  like  early 
dew  upon  her  dimpled  check?  Would  Chris- 
tian parents  desire  to  give  their  children  more 
beautiful  names,  —  beautiful  in  the  light  of  his- 
tory and  of  heaven, — than  that  of  Benjamin, 
■'soil  of  the  right  hand;"  of  David,  "dear,  be- 
loved;" of  Dionysius,  "divinely  touched;"  of 
Eleazar,  "help  of  God;"  of  Eli,  "my  offer- 
ing;" of  Enoch,  "dedicated;"  of  Jacob,  "my 
present;"  of  Lemuel,  "God  is  with  them;" 
of  Nathan,  "given,  gift;"  of  Nathaniel,  "gift 
of  God;"  of  Samuel,  "asked  of  God  and  sent 
of  God,"  &c? 

Besides,  there  are  names  of  distinguished 
Christians,  such  as  Wilberforce,  Howard,  Page, 
Martyn,  Paul,  Peter,  John,  Fenelon,  Clement, 
Baxter,  &C,  —  bright  as  dew-drops  on  the  page 
of  history,  and  as  beautiful  iu  their  enunciation 


CHRISTIAN   NAMES.  141 

as  any  chosen  from  the  world  of  heartless  fashion, 
— as  beautiful  in  sound,  and  infinitely  more  so  in 
associations  which  bind  them  to  deeds  of  human- 
ity and  Christian  love.  The  utterance  of  such 
names  would  be  more  becoming  the  Christian 
home ;  because  they  aid  in  developing  the  purest, 
holiest  and  loftiest  idea  of  its  nature  and  calling:. 
Such  names  will  bind  your  little  ones  to  pure  and 
holy  persons  and  deeds,  and  will  suit  the  book  of 
life  in  which  you  hope  to  have  them  enrolled. 

"  Then,  safe  within  a  better  home,  where  time  and  its  titles 

are  not  found, 
God  will  give  thee  His  new  name,  and  write  it  on  thy  heart; 
A  name,  better  than  of  sons,  a  name  dearer  than  of  daughters, 
A  name  of  union,  peace  and  praise,  as  numbered  in  thy  God." 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

HOME  AS   A   NURSERY. 

"  Thb  Ostrich,  silliest  of  the  feathered  kind, 
And  formed  of  God  without  a  parent's  mind, 
Commits  her  eggs,  incautious,  to  the  dust, 
Forgetful  that  the  foot  may  crush  the  trust ; 
And,  while  on  public  nurseries  they  rely, 
Not  knowing,  and  too  oft  not  caring  why, 
Irrational  in  what  they  thus  prefer 
$o  few,  that  would  seem  wise,  resemble  her." 

To  nurse  means  to  educate  or  draw  out  and 
direct  what  exists  in  a  state  of  mere  involution. 
It  means  to  protect,  to  foster,  to  supply  with 
appropriate  food,  to  cause  to  grow  or  promote 
growth,  to  manage  with  a  view  to  increase.  Thus 
Greece  was  the  nurse  of  the  liberal  arts;  Rome 
was  the  nurse  of  law.  In  horticulture,  a  shrub 
or  tree  is  the  nurse  or  protector  of  a  young  and 
tender  plant.  "We  are  said  to  nurse  our  nation- 
al resources.  Isaiah,  in  speaking  of  the  coming 
Messiah  and  the  glory  of  his  church,  says,  "  Thy 
daughters  shall  be  nursed  at  thy  side."     "Kings 


AS   A   NURSERY.  143 

shall  be  thy  nursing  fathers,  and  their  queens  thy 
nursing  mothers."* 

The  place  or  apartment  appropriated  to  such 
nursing  is  called  a  nursery.  Thus  a  plantation 
of  young  trees  is  called  a  nursery.  Shakspeare 
calls  Padua  the  nursery  of  arts.  We  call  a  very 
bad  place  the  nursery  of  thieves  and  rogues. 
Dram-shops  are  the  nurseries  of  intemperance. 
Commerce  is  called  the  nursery  of  seamen.  Uni- 
versities are  the  nurseries  of  the  arts  and  sciences. 
The  church  on  earth  is  called  the  nursery  of  the 
church  in  heaven.  Christian  families  are  called 
the  nurseries  of  the  church  on  earth,  because  in 
the  former  its  members  are  nursed  and  propaga- 
ted for  the  purpose  of  being  transplanted  into  the 
latter. 

In  the  same  sense  and  for  the  same  reason,  the 
Christian  home  is  the  nursery  of  the  young, — of 
human  nature  in  its  normal  state.  And  as  home 
is  the  nursery  of  the  state  as  well  as  of  the 
church  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  we  must  see  that 
it  is  a  physical,  intellectual  and  religious  nursery. 
We  shall  briefly  consider  it  in  these  aspects.  In- 
deed the  Christian  home  cannot  be  considered  in 
a  more  interesting  and  responsible  light.  The 
little  child,  dedicated  to  God  in  holy  baptism,  is 
entirely  helpless  and  dependent  upon  the  min- 
istrations of  the  nursery.  There  is  the  depart- 
ment of  its  first  impressions,  of  its  first  direc- 
tions, of  its  first  intellectual  and  moral  forma- 
tion, of  the  first  evolution  of  physical  and  moral 
life.     There  the  child  exists  as  but  the  germ  of 


144 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 


what  is  to  be.  It  grows  up  under  the  fostering 
care  and  plastic  power  of  the  parents.  God's 
commission  to  them  in  the  nursery  is,  to  bring 
up  these  germs  of  life,  in  His  nurture  and  ad- 
monition." 

"  Take  the  germ,  and  make  it 

A  bud  of  moral  beauty.     Let  the  dews 
Of  knowledge,  and  the  light  of  virtue,  wake  it 
In  richest  fragrance  and  in  purest  hues." 


The  nursery  is  the  department  of  home  in 
which  the  mother  fulfils  her  peculiar  mission. 
This  is  her  special  sphere.  None  can  effectually 
take  her  place  there.  She  is  the  center  of  at- 
traction, the  guardian  of  the  infant's  destiny; 
and  none  like  she,  can.  overrule  the  unfolding 
life  and  character  of  the  child.  God  has  fitted 
her  for  the  work  of  the  nursery.  Here  she 
reigns  supreme,  the  arbitress  of  the  everlast- 
ing weal  or  woe  of  untutored  infancy.  On  her 
the  fairest  hopes  of  educated  man  depend,  and 
in  the  exercise  of  her  power  there,  she  sways  a 
nation's  destiny,  gives  to  the  infant  body  and 
s<>ul  their  beauty,  their  bias  and  their  direction. 
She  there  possesses  the  immense  force  of  first 
impressions.  The  soul  of  her  child  lies  unveiled 
before  her,  and  she  makes  the  stamp  of  her  own 
spirit  and  personality  upon  its  pliable  nature. 
She  there  engrafts  it,  as  it  were,  into  her  own 
being,  and  from  the  combined  elements  of  her 
own    character,   builds   up   and   establishes    the 


AS    A   NURSERY.  145 

character  of  her  offspring.     Hers  will,  therefore, 
be  the  glory  or  the  shame. 

"  Then  take  the  heart  thy  charms  have  won, 
And  nurse  it  for  the  skies." 

The  nursery  is  that  department  of  home  in 
which  the  formation  of  onr  character  is  begun. 
Infancy  demands  the  nursery.  It  is  not  full- 
formed  and  equipped  for  the  battle  of  life.  It 
lies  in  the  cradle  in  a  state  of  mere  involution, 
and  in  the  hands  of  its  parents  is  altogether  pas- 
sive, and  susceptible  of  impressions  as  wax  be- 
fore the  sun.  The  germ  of  the  man  is  there  ; 
but  it  has  yet  to  be  developed.  Its  indwelling 
life  must  be  nurtured  with  tender  and  assiduous 
care.  It  demands  an  influence  suited  to  the  ex- 
pansion of  its  nature  into  bloom  and  maturity. 
It  demands  physical  development,  mental  evolu- 
tion, moral  training,  and  spiritual  elevation.  In 
order  to  these  it  must  live  amidst  the  sweet  and 
plastic  socialities  of  maternal  relationship.  It 
must  come  under  the  fostering  influence  of  a 
mother's  heart,  and  be  reared  up  by  the  tender 
touches  of  a  mother's  hand.  This  idea  is  embod- 
ied in  home  as  a  nursery.  This  is  fourfold  in  its 
conception  and  relation  to  the  child. 

The  nursery  is  physical.  This  involves  the 
means  of  keeping  the  child  in  health,  and  the 
appliances  of  a  vigorous  physical  development. 
The  Christian  mother,  to  this  end,  should  make 
herself  acquainted  with  the  physiology  of  the 
infant  body.  Many  well-meaning  mothers,  from 
7 


146  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

sheer  ignorance,  destroy  the  health  of  their  chil- 
dren ;  and  it  is  on  this  account  perhaps  that  four- 
tenths  of  them  die  under  five  years  of  age.  They 
should  also  consider  the  bearing  of  the  body 
upon  the  mind  and  morals  of  their  children. 
How  often  do  ignorant  and  indolent  parents,  by 
giving  their  children  over  to  the  care  of  sickly 
and  immoral  nurses,  ruin  forever,  the  health  and 
souls  of  their  oflspring.  Much,  then,  depends 
upon  the  physical  nurture  of  your  child.  If  you 
would  not  injure  its  mind  and  soul,  you  must 
nurse  its  body  with  tender  care  and  wisdom.  A 
vital  bond  unites  them;  they  reciprocally  influ- 
ence each  other,  and  hence  what  affects  the  one 
must  have  a  corresponding  influence  upon  the 
otheri     Neglect; the  body  of  your  child;  destroy 

its  health  either  by  extreme  and  fastidious  can-, 
or  by  a  brutal  neglect,  and  you  at  the  same  time 
do  lasting  injury  to  itfl  mind  and  morals  ;  for  the 
body  as  the  vehicle  of  mind  and  spirit,  is  used  for 
spiritual  ends,  and  should,  therefore,  be  nurtured 
with  direct  reference  to  these. 

your  child,  in  the  uursery,  is  like  the  tender 
plant.  The  storm  of  passion  and  the  chill  of  in- 
difference  and  the  oppression  of  parental  tyranny 
should  not  be  beard  and  felt  there;  for  where  the 
storm  rages  and  coldness  freezes  and  the  band 
of  cruelly  oppresses,  we  can  have  no  beautiful 
and  rigorous  development  of  physical  or  moral 
powers.  There  will  be  a  stinted  and  one-sided 
growth.  At  best  it  will  be  dwarfish,  and  tend  to 
counteract    the    spontaneous    outflow    of    mental 


AS    A    NURSERY.  147 

and  moral  life.  The  tender  plant,  when,  cramped 
and  clogged  by  existing  impediments,  cannot 
spring  up  into  beauteous  maturity.  Neither  can 
your  child,  when  crammed  with  sweetmeats,  and 
oppressed  and  screwed  into  monstrous  contortions 
Dy  the  cruel  inquisition  of  fashion  and  fashion- 
able garments. 

In  this  way  the  misdirected  love  and  cruel 
pride  of  mothers  often  destroy  the  health  and 
beauty  of  their  children.  They  cause  a  sickly 
and  dwarfish  growth  by  too  much  confinement 
and  mental  taxation,  by  a  too  rigid  choice  of  diet, 
by  daily,  uncalled  for  decoctions  of  medicine,  and 
by  fitting  the  body  in  a  dress  as  the  Chinese  do 
their  children's  feet  in  shoes;  in  a  word,  by  mak- 
ing the  entire  nursery  life  too  artificial,  and  sub- 
stituting the  laws  of  art  for  those  of  nature.  The 
result  must  be  a  delicate,  artificial  constitution, 
too  fragile  for  the  trials  and  duties  of  life.  The 
body  of  your  child  has  not  the  blooming,  blush- 
ing form  of  nature,  but  the  cold  marble  cast  of  a 
statue ;  and  it  imprints  itself  upon  the  disposi- 
tion, the  spirit,  the  mental  faculties.  It  shows 
itself  in  peevishness,  in  imbecility,  in  such  a  pas- 
sive, slavish  subjection  to  the  rules  and  interests 
of  mere  artificial  life,  as  to  admit  no  hope  almost 
of  spiritual  progression. 

The  nursery  is  also  intellectual.  The  mind  of 
your  child  is  unfolding  as  well  as  its  body;  and 
hence  the  former,  as  well  as  the  latter,  demands 
the  nursery.  How  much  of  the  mental  vigor 
and   attainments   of    children   depend   upon   the 


148  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

prudent    management   of   the   nursery,      Ilenco 
parents  should 

"  Exert  a  prudent  care 
To  feed  our  infant  minds  with  proper  fare  ; 
And  wisely  store  the  nursery  by  degrees 
With  wholesome  learning,  yet  acquired  with  ease. 
And  thus  well-tutored  only  while  we  share 
A  mother's  lectures  and  a  nurse's  care." 

Parents  may  abuse  the  minds  of  their  children 
in  the  nursery,  either  by  total  neglect,  or  by  im- 
mature education,  by  too  early  training  and  too 
close  confinement  to  books  at  a  very  early  age, 
thus  taxing  the  mind  beyond  its  capacities.  This 
is  often  the  case  when  children  betray  great  pre- 
cocity of  intellect;  and  the  pride  of  the  parent 
seeks  to  gratify  itself  through  the  supposed  gift 
of  the  child.  In  this  way  parents  often  reduce 
their  children  to  hopeless  mental  imbecility. 

Again,  parents  often  injure  the  minds  of  their 
children  by  their  misguided  efforts  to  train  the 
mind.  Even  in  'raining  them  to  speak,  how  im- 
prudenl  they  are  in  calling  words  and  giving 
ideas  in  mutilated  language.  It  is  just  as  easy  to 
teach  children  to  speak  correctly,  and  to  call  all 
things  by  their  proper  names,  as  to  abuse  their 
vernacular  tongue.  Such  mutilations  are  imped- 
iments to  the  growth  of  the  intellect.  The  child 
must  afterwards  be  taught  to  undo  what  it  was 
taught  to  do  and  say  in  the  nursery.  But  as  this 
subject  will  be  fully  considered  in  the  chapter  on 
Home  Education,  we  shall  refrain  from  further 
comment  here. 


AS    A   NURSERY.  149 

The  nursery  is  moral  and  spiritual.  The  first 
moral  and  religious  training  of  the  child  belongs 
to  the  nursery,  and  is  the  work  of  the.  mother. 
Upon  her  personal  exhibition  of  truth,  justice, 
virtue,  &c,  depends  the  same  moral  elements  in 
the  character  of  her  child.  In  the  nursery  we 
receive  our  first  lessons  in  virtue  or  in  vice,  in 
honesty  or  dishonesty,  in  truth  or  in  falsehood,  in 
purity  or  in  corruption.  The  full-grown  man  is 
the  matured  child  morally  as  well  as  physically 
and  intellectually.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
the  spiritual  formation  and  growth  of  the  child. 
Spiritual  culture  belongs  eminently  to  the  nurs- 
ery. There  the  pious  parent  should  begin  the 
work  of  her  child's  salvation. 

From  what  we  have  now  seen  of  the  nursery, 
we  may  infer  its  very  common  abuse  by  Christian 
parents  in  various  ways.  They  abuse  it  either  by 
forsaking  its  duties,  or  giving  it  over  to  nurses. 
The  whole  subject  warns  parents  against  giving 
over  their  children  to  dissolute  nurses.  "What  a 
blushing  shame  and  disgrace  to  the  very  name  of 
Christian  mother,  it  is  for  her  to  throw  the  whole 
care  and  responsibility  of  the  nursery  upon  hired 
and  irreligious  servants.  And  why  is  this  so 
often  done?  To  relieve  the  mother  from  the 
trouble  of  her  children,  and  afford  her  time  and 
opportunity  to  mingle  unfettered  in  the  giddy 
whirl  of  fashionable  dissipation.  In  circles  of 
opulent  society  it  would  now  be  considered  a 
drudgery  and  a  disgrace  for  mothers  to  attend 
upon  the   duties  of  this   responsible   department 


150  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOMB. 

of  home.  But  the  nurse  cannot  be  a  substitute 
for  the  mother. 

"  Then  why  resign  into  a  stranger's  hand 
A  task  so  much  within  your  own  command, 
That  God  and  Nature,  and  your  interest  too 
Seem  with  one  voice  to  delegate  to  you  ?" 

The  same  may  be  said  of  boarding  schools,  to 
which  many  parents  send  their  children  to  rid 
themselves  of  the  trouble  of  training  them  up. 
They  are  sent  there  at  the  very  age  in  which  they 
mostly  need  the  fostering  care  of  a  parent. 
There  they  soon  become  alienated  from  home, 
and  lose  the  benefit  of  its  influence;  and  there 
too  they  often  contract  habits  and  are  filled  with 
sentiments  the.  mosl  degenerating  and  corrupt. 
They  grow  up  and  enter  society  without  any  con- 
scions  relation  to  home,  and  as  a  consequence,  re- 

gard  society  :is  a  mere  heartless  conventionalism. 

To  tliis  part  of  the  subject  we  shall,  in  another 
chapter,  devote  special  attention.  It  demands 
the  prayerful  consideration  of  Christian  parents. 

""Why  hire  a  lodging  in  a  bouse  unknown, 

Pox  one  whose  tenderest  thoughts  all  hover  rouna  your  own  ? 

Thi>  Beoond  weaning,  needless  as  it  is, 

How  does  it  lacerate  both  your  heart  and  his  1" 


CIIAPTER  XIV. 

HOME-SYMPATHY. 

"  Sweet  sensibility  !  thou  keen  delight ! 
Unprompted  moral !   sudden  sense  of  right ! 
Perception  exquisite  !  fair  virtue's  seed  ! 
Thou  quick  precursor  of  the  liberal  deed  ! 
Thou  hasty  conscience  !  reason's  blushing  morn  ! 
Instinctive  kindness,  ere  reflection's  born  ! 
Prompt  sense  of  equity  !  to  thee  belongs 
The  swift  redress  of  unexamined  wrongs  ! 
Eager  to  serve,  the  cause  perhaps  untried, 
But  always  apt  to  choose  the  suffering  side  !" 

"Where  shall  we  find  a  more  exquisite  picture 
of  home-sympathy  than  this,  from  the  pen  of  that 
truly  pious  woman,  Hannah  More !  We  con- 
sider the  home-sympathy  as  an  argument  against 
the  neglect  and  abuse  of  the  nursery.  It  is  the 
instinctive  impulse  of  the  parent's  heart  to  he 
faithful  to  the  trust  of  home.  What  mother, 
prompted  by  such  sympathy,  can  be  recreant  to 
the  duties  of  her  household?  Can  she,  keenly 
sensible  to  the  danger  of  her  children,  anxious 


152  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

for  their  welfare,  prompt  to  do  them  justice, 
eager  to  procure  them  Interests  and  }ny>:  yearn- 
ing tn  alleviate  their  misfortnnes,  push  them 
from  her  arms,  and  give  them  over  to  the  care  of 
unfeeling  and  immoral  nurses?  It'  among  all  the 
members  of  tlie  Christian  home 

"  There  is  a  holy  tenderness, 
A  nameless  sympathy,  a  fountain  Lore, — 
Branched  infinite  from  parents  to  children, 
Fnnn  husband  t<>  wife,  from  child  to  child, 
That  binds,  BUpports,  ami  sweetens  human  life," 

then  tlie  law  of  sympathy  is  the  standard  of  faith- 
fulness to  the  loved  ones  of  home,  and  its  viola- 
tion is  an  abuse  of  the  affections  and  faith  of  the 
heart.  We  shall  now  consider  the  natural  and 
spiritual  sympathy  of  home. 

What  are  th<-  natural  elements  of  home-sympa- 
thy ?  The  .original  meaning  of  sympathy  is  ''har- 
mony of  the  affections."  A-  Buch  it  i-  an  instinc- 
tive element  of  human  nature.  "Sympathy," 
Adams  in  his  Elements  of  Christian  Sci- 
ence,    "ia    a    natural    harmony    by    whieh,    upon 

matter*  especially  thai  concern  the  affections,  one 
human  being  shall,  under  certain  conditions,  feel, 
fe.l    in   despite  of  all  concealment  of  language, 

the  real  state  of  the  other."  It  is,  in  a  word,  that 
law  of  our  nature  which  makes  the  feeling  of  one 
become  affected  in  the  same  way  as  are  tlie  feel- 
ings of  another,  so  that,  in  obedience  to  this  law, 
"we  rejoice  with  them  thai  rejoice,  and  weep 
with  them  that   weep."     In  order  to  this  the  mo- 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  153 

tivc  need  not  be  the  same  in  those  in  whom  the 
feeling  is  the  same;  for  that  feeling  engenders  a 
feeling  of  its  own  kind  in  the  other,  independent 
of  similar  motive.  Home-sympathy  is  that  pri- 
mary power  of  the  heart  by  which  all  the  affec- 
tions of  one  member  are  extended  to  all  the  other 
members.  It  awakens  in  caeh  for  all  the  others, 
those  delicate  sensibilities  which  impel  to  the 
most  self-denying  and  benevolenl  arts.  The  par- 
ent who  sympathizes  with  the  child,  will  extend, 
to  it  all  the  aids  within  a  parent's  ability. 

Its  nature  is  to  yield  more  of  itself  to  weeping 
than  to  rejoicing,  to  misery  than  to  joy.  The 
parent  will  exert  more  power  and  do  more  for  the 
wretched  child  than  for  those  of  his  children  who 
arc  not  in  the  same  condition.  lie  will  leave  the 
latter  in  their  security,  and  seek  the  one  lost 
Bheep  of  his  little  flock.  Thus  it  exerts  a  shel- 
tering influence  against  the  dangers  and  miseries 
of  human  life  It  is  the  law  of  home-preserva- 
tion, written  upon  the  heart,  obeyed  by  the  af- 
fections, and  impelling  each  member  to  yield 
a  voluntary  devotion  to  the  welfare  of  all  the 
others.  It  is  this  which  makes  it  one  of  the. 
most  lovely  attributes  of  home.  It  is  one  of  the. 
golden  chains  that  link  its  members  together  in 
close  unity,  making  one  hearl  of  the  many  that 
are  thus  rosed  together,  and  blending  into  beau- 
tiful unison  their  specific  feelings,  and  hopes  and 
interest  9. 

It  is.  therefore,  the  law  of  oneness  in  the  fam- 
ily, weaving  together,  like  warp  and  woof,  the  ex- 
*7 


154  TIIE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

istence  of  the  members,  and  locking  each  heart 
Into  one  great  horde-heart,  "like  the  keys  of  an 
organ  vast,"  bo  that  it'  one  heart  be  out  of  tune, 
the  home-heart  feels  the  painful  jar,  and  gives 
fortb  discordant  sonnds.  By  it  we  are  not  only 
bound  to  our  kindred.  but  to  our  friends,  our  na- 
tion, <»ur  race'.  It  impels  us  to  all  our  acta  of  be- 
nevolence even  to  an  enemy.  Earth  would  be  a 
dreary  Bcene,  and  Bociety  would  be  a  curse,  if  it 
,did  not  reign  in  human  nature. 

Sympathy  "was  a  rich  and  interesting  theme  with 
the  ancients.  It  entered  into  all  their  philosophy 
and  religion,  and  gave  rise  to  numerous  fables. 
They  believed  that  Bympathy  was  a  miraculous 
principle,  and  that  it  reigned  in  irrational  and  in- 
animate things.  Thus  they  thought  that  "two 
harps  being  tuned  alike,  and  one  being  played, 

the   chords   of    the   other   would    follow    the   tune 

with  a  faint,  sympathetic  music.''  It  was  also 
believed  that  precious  .-tones  sympathized  with 
certain  persons,  that  the  stars  sympathized  with 
men,  that  the  efficacy  of  ointment  depended  upon 

Bympathy,  that  "wounds  could  he  healed  at  a  dis- 
tance by  an  ointment  whose  force  depended  upon 
Bympathy,  the  ointment  being  smeared  upon  the 
weapon,  not  upon  the  wound/' 

Upon  this  belief  many  erroneous,  supersti- 
tious and  dangerous  systems  of  philosophy  and 
religion  were  established.  The  natural  philoso- 
phy of  Baptista  Porta,  or  Alhertus  Magnus, 
was  founded  upon  the  principle  of  sympathy. 
Plato   applied    this    principle   to   marriage,   and 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  155 

maintained  that  "  marriage  was  the  union  of 
two  souls  that  once,  in  their  preexistent  state, 
were  one,  and  that  sympathy  urges  them  to  union 
again,  and  sends  them  unconsciously  seeking  it 
over  the  world."  In  the  middle  ages  it  Avas 
maintained  that  two  friends  could  he  so  moved 
with  mutual  sympathy  as  to  have,  under  certain 
conditions,  a  true  and  perfect  knowledge  of  one 
another's  state,  even  when  at  a  great  distance 
apart.  To  the  revival  of  this  erroneous  view  of 
the  law  of  sympathy  may  be  ascribed  the  theories 
of  Mesmerism  and  spiritual  rappings  at  the  pres- 
ent day. 

Home-sympathy,  viewed  as  a  feeling  and  a  fac- 
ulty, is  twofold  in  its  nature,  viz.,  passive  and  act- 
ive. As  passive,  it  is  the  mere  sense  of  harmony 
"!'  feeling  among  all  the  members,  producing  the 
idea  and  feeling  of  the  oneness  of  home.  It  makes 
a  unity  of  affection,  so  that  the  temper,  hopes  and 
interests  of  each  member  have  a  living  echo  and 
response  in 'all  the  others.  It  gives  to  home  its 
unitive  heart,  preserves  its  vital  coherence,  fuses 
all  the  hearts  together,  makes  each  a  thread  in 
the  web  of  home-being,  where  each  finds  its  true 
measure,  is  inspired  with  the  home-feeling  when 
all  is  right,  and  oppressed  with  home-sickness 
when  separated  from  it. 

But  home-sympathy  is  also  active.  As  such 
it  is  "the  active  power  that  one  person  has  natu- 
rally of  entering  into  the  feelings  of  another,  and 
being  himself  affected  as  that  other  is."  Each 
member  of  home  has  the  power  in  his  feelings 


150  THE    CHBISTIAK    SOME. 

of  making  the  feelings  of  all  the  other  members 
hia  own,  though  he  may  nol  have  the  causes  of 
the  feelings  of  tlic  ono  with  whom  he  sympa- 
thizes. Tims  one  friend  may  feel  the  grief  of 
another,  actually  and  really,  though  he  may  not 
Buffer  the  loss  of  that  friend.  He  can  make  tlic 
emotion  which  that  Loss  caused,  his  own.  We 
may  weep  with  the  mother  who  pours  her  floods 
of  anguish  upon  the  grave  of  her  child,  though 
we  may  not  have  sustained  the  same  Loss.  The 
husband  weeps  with  his  wife,  though  he  may 
not  be  able  to  feel  the  pangs  "which  penetrate 
her  heart.  The  child  can  enter  into  the  feel- 
ings of  the  parent,  and  he  affected  to  tears  or  to 
joy  by  theni. 

And  thus  the  home-sympathy  demands  that  all 

the  emotions  of  home,  whether  joyful  or  painful, 
must  affect  all, — must  vibrate  from  hearl  to  heart, 
li  involves  the  power  of  home-transference,  by 
which  each  member  conveys  to  his  own  affec- 
tions, all  within  home.  It  is  thus  the  law  of 
adaptation  and  assimilation,  tor  the  home-affec- 
tions. In  obedience  to  this  law  the  hearts  ami 
interests  of  the  members  are  hound  up  in  beau- 
tiful harmony.  The  necessities  of  one  are  sup- 
plied by  all.  Tt  is  this  which  makes  the  mem- 
1m  pa  faithful   to  each  other,  and  prompts  them  to 

deeds  ot*  disinterested  Love. 

It  is.  therefore,  only  when  the  home-sympathy. 
as  a  feeling  and  a  faculty,  is  carried  out  and  acted 
upon  according  to  Hs  instinctive  impulses,  that  it 
becomes  an  effective  agent  of  good.      This,  how- 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  157 

ever,  is  not  always  done.  Often  it  is  neutralized 
by  not  being  permitted  to  express  itself  according 
to  the  laws  of  its  own  operation.  Many  mem- 
bers have  acute  feelings  and  great  powers  of 
sympathy,  but  it  exists  in  them  only  as  feeling, 
only  as  a  stimulus,  a  sentiment,  and  is,  therefore, 
nothing  but  home-sentimcntalism, — a  disease  of 
home-sympathy.  Thus,  for  instance,  parents  may 
weep  over  the  wickedness  of  their  children,  and 
the  pious  wife  may  lament  the  impenitence  of  her 
husband ;  but  if  they  go  no  further,  their  sym- 
pathy is  really  false,  because  it  does  not  share  in 
and  feel  the  state  of  others,  nor  seek  to  alleviate 
their  impending  miseries.  The  home-sympathy 
is  not  simply  the  look  of  the  priest  and  Levite 
upon  the  half-dead  traveler,  but  also  the  help  of 
the  good  Samaritan.  Its  language  is  not  only, 
"Be  ye  clothed  and  fed,"  but  also,  "I  will  clothe 
and  feed  thee."  The  mere  indulgence  in  the  feel- 
ing of  sympathy  is  but  to  harden  the  heart  in  the 
end.  Such  were  the  sympathies  of  Rosseau,  — 
mere  heart-stimuli,  without  legitimate  deeds  and 
objective  force,  existing  only  as  a  love-sick  senti- 
ment. And  this  was  both  the  theme  of  his  elo- 
quence and  the  cause  of  his  misery.  Such,  too, 
were  the  sympathies  of  Robespierre,  —  a  mere 
ebullition  of  disembodied  sentiment,  borne  up 
like  a  floating  bubble  upon  muddy  waters,  and 
exploding  upon  the  slightest  depression. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  when  home-sympathy 
is  issued  in  faithful  action  as  its  emotions  prompt, 
it  becomes  an  efficient  agent  in  the  happiness  and 


I.".* 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


peace  of  the  lamily.  It  not  only  gives  eloquence 
to  the  tongue,  tears  t  < » the  eye,  but  faithfulness  to 
the  Life.  It  serves  as  a  key-note  i<>  the  mind  and 
heart,  framing  the  home-energy,  revealing  to  us 

cur  real  state,  and  prompting,  by  the  instinct  of 
love,  the  means  for  our  highest  welfare. 

"How  glows  tlic  joyous  parent  bo  descry, 
A  guileless  bosom  true  to  sympathy] 
A  long  lost  friend,  or  hapless  child  restored, 
Smiles  at  his  blazing  hearth  and  social  board  ; 
Warm  from  his  heart  the  tears  of  rapture  flow, 
And  virtue  triumphs  o'er  remembered  wue  I" 

Sympathy  is  excited  and  measured  by  the 
power  of    natural   affection.      In  proportion  to 

the  strength  of  the  latter  will  be  the  attract- 
ive power  of  the  former.  That  Boothing  voice 
which  «alins  the  wailing  infant;  that  loud  bo- 
som from  which  the  child  draws  its  snhsisteiice, 
and  on  which  it  pillows  its  weary  head  :  that 
smile  which  throws  a  sunshine  around  its  exist- 
ence, and  all  those  'lets  of  kindness  administered 
by  the  hand  of  love,  draw  the  child  instinctively 
to  the  parent's  heart,  and  blend  in  sweetest  union 
il-  \  <  ry  being  with  theirs. 

The  principle  of  home-sympathy  reigns  in  some 
degree  in  every  household  whose  members  have 
not  sunk  below  the  level  of  the  brute.  Its  nature 
demands  that  it  he  mutual.  It  should  glow  with 
pectmar  warmth  in  tin;  wife,  the  mother,  and  the 
sister;  because  it  i-  a  more  prominent  instinct  of 
woman.     It  is  an  intuition  Of  the  mother'B  heart. 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  159 

"When  pain  and  anguish  wring  the  brow, 
A  ministering  an^el  thou !" 
"Who  but  she  can  smooth  the  pillow  and  soothe 
the  anguish  of  the  child  of  affliction  ?  There  is  a 
tenderness  in  her  nature,  a  softness  in  her  touch, 
a  lightness  in  her  step,  a  soothing  expression  in 
her  face,  a  tender  beam  in  her  eye,  which  man 
can  never  have,  and  which  eminently  tits  her  for 
the  lead  in  home-sympathy.  The  want  of  it  is  a 
libel  upon  her  sex.  It  is  her  prerogative, — the 
magic  power  she  wields  in  the  formation  and  ref- 
ormation of  character. 

But  her  sympathy  should  find  response  in  the 
bosom  of  her  husband,  the  father,  the  brother; 
for,  if  true,  it  must  be  mutual.  Their  joys  and 
their  sorrows  must  be  common.  Thus  heart  must 
answer  to  heart,  and  face.  "The  cruelty  of  that 
man,"  says  J.  A.  James,  "wants  a  name,  and  I 
know  of  none  sufficiently  emphatic,  who  denies 
his  sympathy  to  a  suffering  woman,  whose  only 
sin  is  a  broken  constitution,  and  whose  calamity  is 
the  result  of  her  marriage."  Without  such  mu- 
tual sympathy,  the  members  of  the  family  would 
be  cold  and  repulsive,  and  society  would  be  de- 
prived of  its  most  lovely  attributes;  its  members 
would  lose  the  connecting  link  which  brings  them 
together,  and  its  entire  fabric  would  fall  to  pieces 
and  degenerate  into  barbaric  individualism. 

"  ll.id  earth  DO  sympathy,  no  tears  would  flow, 
In  heart-felt  sorrow,  for  another's  woo ; 
The  joyous  spirit  then  would  weary  roam, 
A  stranger  to  the  dear  delights  of  home." 


1G0  THE    CHRISTIAN"    HOME. 

We  shall  now  consider  briefly  the  religions 
elements  of  home-sympathy.  These  involve  har- 
mony of  the  Bpiritual  affections,  and  a  transfer  to 
all  the  members,  of  the  religious  experience  and 
enjoyment  of  each.  As  natural  Bympathy  arises 
out  of  and  is  measured  by  natural  afFectaoi 
Bpiritual  sympathy  is  the  product  of  faith  and 
love.  Hence  the  latter  is  purer,  more  refined 
and  efficient  than  the  former.  If  the  members 
of  the  family  are  the  children  of  God,  they  will 
live  together  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit  as  well  as 
of  natural  affection.  The  Bympathy  of  flu-  pious 
portion  will  be  interposed  in  behalf  of  the  sal- 
vation of  the  impenitent  members.  There  will 
be  an  identity  of  soul-interest.  The  pious  moth- 
er will  make  the  everlasting  interests  of  her  hus- 
band and  child,  her  own  :  and  will  labor  with  the 
same  assiduity  to  promote  them  as  Bhe  does  to 
promote  her  own  salvation.  She  will  thus  enter 
into  the  spiritual  emotions  of  her  kindred,  and 
bear  them  vicariously,  making  thus  her  religious 
sympathies  the  law  ^\'  preservation  to  all  the 
members  of  her  household. 

The  living  stream  of  this  sympathy  is  given  by 
Christ  in  His  address  to  the  weeping  daughters 
of  Jerusalem:  "Daughters  of  Jerusalem,  weep 
not  for  me.  but  weep  for  yourselves  and  for  your 
children  !"  The  following  is  also  its  living  utter- 
ance: "My  son,  if  thy  heart  be  wise,  my  heart 
shall  rejoice,  even  mine."  We  have  also  a  beau- 
tiful exhibition  of  it  in  the  touching  history  of 
Ruth,  in  the  life  of  Joseph,  and  in  the  mother  of 


nOME-SYMPATHY.  161 

Samuel.  Peter  describes  it  when  ho  says,  "Be 
all  of  one  mind,  having  compassion  one  of  an- 
other; love  as  brethren,  he  pitiful,  be  courteous." 
Esther  expresses  it  in  the  exclamation,  "  How  can 
I  endure  to  see  the  destruction  of  my  kindred !" 
Paul  gives  utterance  to  it  when  he  says,  "  I  would 
be  accursed  for  my  brethren  and  kindred's  sake." 
Jesus  exemplifies  it  in  His  intercourse  with  the 
family  of  Lazarus ;  He  shows  its  emotion  and  its 
active  charities  when  He  stands  on  the  grave  of 
that  friend,  and  weeps,  and  calls  him  from  the 
dead.  His  sympathy  for  a  lost  world  is  the  true 
pattern  of  home-sympathy.  It  was  disinterested, 
superior  to  all  selfishness,  self-denying,  active,  and 
prompting  Him  to  do  and  suffer  all  that  He  did. 
It  was  not  measured  by  the  merits  of  the  object 
after  which  it  yearned.    He  sympathized  with  all, 

"  For  each  He  had  a  brother's  interest  in  His  heart." 

And  its  softening  influence  fell,  like  morning  dew, 
upon  the  heart  of  adamant,  melting  it  into  contri- 
tion and  love. 

"  In  every  pang  that  rends  the  heart, 
The  Man  of  sorrows  had  a  part ; 
He  sympathizes  in  our  grief, 
And  to  the  sufferer  sends  relief." 

See  Him  bend  over  the  bed  of  Jairus's  daughter; 
see  Him  opening  the  eyes  of  the  blind,  healing 
thi'  paralytic,  comforting  and  feeding  the  poor 
widow,  and  cheering  the  bereaved  and  troubled 
heart.     Wherever  lie  went  lie  was  "a  brother 


162  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

born  for  them  in  adversity."  See  Him  on  the 
cross,  when  weltering  in    blood  and   struggling 

with  the  pangs  of  a  cruel  death,  He  casts  His 
Languid  eye  upon  His  aged  mother  who  is  there 
weeping  her  pungent  WOes,  and  make-  provision 
for  her  comfort.  Ilis  sympathy  now  for  all  is  the 
same. 

"  None  ever  came  unltlcst  away ; 
Then,  though  all  earthly  ties  be  riven, 
Smile,  for  thott  hast  a  Friend  in  heaven  !" 

It  is  this  sympathy  which  makes  Him  a  member 
of  every  Christian  home.  And  when  the  sym- 
pathy of  ita  members  is  the  reproduction  of  His, 
they  will,  like  Mary,  sit  in  loving  pupilage  at  His 
feet,  each  becoming  the  agent  of  blessings  for  all 

the  rest.      The  wife  will   seek  the  salvation  of  her 

husband;  the  mother  will  labor  with  unwearied 

diligence  for  the  redemption  of  her  child. 

Thus  when  home-sympathy  ia  purified  and  de- 
veloped by  Christian  faith  and  love,  it  opens  up 
the  most  elevated  of  all  home-feeling  and  solici- 
tude, and  becomes  the  most  effectual  safeguard 
against  impending  ruin.  No  family  can  be  true 
to  [ts  privileges  and  mission  without  it.  It  allures 
to  the  cross,  leads  all  the  members  in  the  path  of 
the  sympathizing  one,  and  prompts  them  to  say, 
"  Entreal  me  nol  to  leave  thee,  or  to  return  from 

following  after  thee;  for  whither  thou  goesi  E 
will  go,  and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy 
people  shall  be  my  people,  and  thy  God  my  God; 
where  tin  mi  diest  I  will  die,  and  there  will  I  be 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  1G3 

buried ;  the  Lord  do  so  to  me,  and  more  also,  if 
aught  but  death  part  thee  and  me." 

AV^at  would  the  Christian  home  be,  therefore; 
without  such  sympathy?  Powerless,  amoral  des- 
olation !  "We  read  in  God's  Word,  of  men  Losing 
natural  affection,  and  of  mothers  forgetting  their 
sucking  children.  But  these  were  worse  than 
brutes.  What  shall  we  then  say  of  Christian 
parents  being  devoid  of  spiritual  sympathy,  — 
shedding  no  tear  of  anguish  over  their  moral 
ruin,  nor  showing  the  least  concern  about  their 
salvation?  Such  parents  do  not  rejoice  even  over 
the  return  of  their  children  to  God.  They  are  a 
disgrace  to  the  Christian  name,  and  bring  infamy 
upon  the  Christian  home. 

Some  parents  do  not  proceed  quite  so  far. 
They  indulge  in  the  feeling  of  sympathy  for 
their  children;  but  alas!  that  feeling  is  never 
expressed  in  efforts  to  save  them.  It  is  all  ex- 
pended in  vain  and  fruitless  lamentations,  and  is, 
therefore,  at  best  but  a  morbid  sentimentalism, — 
but  a  cloak  behind  which  are  lurking  parental 
hard-heartedness  and  religious  apathy ;  proving 
plainly  the  great  truth  advanced  by  Adams,  in 
his  Elements  of  Christian  Science,  "  that  an  in- 
dulgence in  the  feelings  of  sympathy  without  car- 
rying them  out  to  the  relief  of  actual  distress,  pro- 
duces hardness  of  heart  to  BUch  a  degree  that  the 
most  pitiless  and  cruel,  the  most  licentious  and 
unnatural,  and  ungrateful  conduct  shall  be  joined 
with  the  must  overflowing  and  deeply  thrilling 
sentiment." 


164  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

Let  those  parents  who  are  ever  lamenting  the 
wickedness  of  their  children,  bn1  do  nothing  to 
make  them  better,  ponder  well  this  sentiment, 
and  Bee  it  in  the  grin  of  their  own  hypocrisy, 
and  the  desolation  of  their  injured  home  and 
children.  Let  the  other  members,  as  well  as 
the  parents,  take  the  timely  warning.  Let  the 
pions  wife  here  see  the  character  of  her  sympathy 
for  her  impenitent  husband,  And  let  each 
that  their  pious  sympathy  "always  issue  forth  in 
actions."  Let  that  sympathy  give  not  only  elo- 
quence to  the  tongue,  tears  t<>  your  eye.  and 
sighs  to  your  heart,  hut  also  faithfulness  to  your 
lite  and  holy  calling.  As  the  cry  of  hunger  from 
your  children,  and  their  shivering  cold  in  winter, 
prompt  you  to  provide  for  their  natural  wants,  so 
let  their  moral  wants  impel  yon  to  fidelity  to  their 
souls.  All  will  he  vain  without  this.  The  stern 
demands  of  a  father's  authority,  and  the  formal 
teachings  of  a  mother's  lip,  will  tall  like  the  frost 
of  a  winter's  morning.  Upon  their  tender  hearts, 
— only  to  sear  and  to  harden  and  to  freeze  up  the 
heart  against  <  rod.      For 

I  !'•  will  not  let  love's  work  impart 
Full  solace,  lest  it  steal  the  heart." 

F»nt    when   pure  and  holy  sympathy  goes  out,  in 
its  softening  influence  after  the  young; — 

••Thru,  feeling  is  diffused  in  every  part, 
Thrills  in  each  nerve,  and  lives  in  all  the  heart." 

Such  Bympathy  has  a  saving  influence  upon  hoth 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  165 

the  parent  and  the  child.  It  softens  and  refines 
the  former,  while  it  forms  and  allures  the  latter. 
The  child  fondly  leans  upon  the  parents,  looks  up 
to  them  for  support  and  enjoyment,  and  is  led  hy 
them  in  whatever  path  they  choose.  By  its  influ- 
ence the  feeling  of  natural  and  spiritual  helpless- 
ness becomes  developed  in  the  child  ;  the  sense  of 
dependence  on  a  superior  is  awakened;  and  with 
these,  all  those  feelings  of  confidence  and  venera- 
tion, which  lay  the  foundation  of  religious  affec- 
tions, are  unfolded.  The  parent's  influence,  both 
as  to  kind  and  degree,  depends,  therefore,  upon 
the  character  of  home-sympathy;  If  it  is  but 
natural,  the  parental  influence  will  not  extend 
beyond  the  worldly  gain  and  temporal  welfare  of 
the  child.  The  parent  will  exert  no  power  over 
the  soul.  But  if  it  be  spiritual,  and  extend  be- 
3-ond  the  mere  instincts  of  natural  affection,  it 
will  expand  the  mind,  and  develop  all  the  melt- 
ing charities  of  our  nature.  It  will  pass  with  a 
new  transferring  and  transforming  power,  from 
husband  to  wife,  from  parent  to  child,  from  kin- 
dred to  kindred.  Wherever  it  finds  its  way ; 
whatever  fiber  of  the  heart  it  may  touch,  it  be- 
gets a  new  and  holy  affection,  unites  the  energies, 
lightens  the  toils,  soothes  the  sorrows,  and  exalts 
the  hopes,  of  all  the  members.  It  reflects  a  soft- 
ening luster  from  eye  to  eye,  goes  with  electric 
flash  from  heart  to  heart,  glows  in  its  warmth 
throughout  all  its  moral  courses,  accumulates  the 

home-endearments,  stimulates  each  member  to  re- 
ligious exertions  for  all  the  rest,  and  lays  thefoun- 


ICG  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

elation  in  each  heart  for  an  unbroken  home-com- 
munion  of  their  Bainted  spirits  in  heaven  !  It 
cements  them  together  in  their  tent-home,  creat- 
ing a  sweel  concord  of  hearts  and  hopes  and  joys; 
and  then  elevates  them  unitedly  in  fond  anticipa- 
tion of  reunion  in  their  eternal  home.  They 
blend  their  tears  together  over  the  grave  of  bur- 
ied love,  and  enjoy  the  saintly  sympathy  of  loved 
ones  gone  before  them. 

This  is  its  mos1  lovely  feature.  Tell  mo,  is 
there  not  a  bond  of  sympathy  between  Jesus  and 
Eifl  people  here, — between  loved  ones  in  heaven 
and  their  pious  kindred  on  earth?  Do  not  the 
tears  of  tlio  Christian  home  reflect  the  tears  of 
Jesus?  These  are  to  the  heart  like  the  dews  of 
Hermon, — like  the  dews  that  descended  upon  the 
mountains  of  Zion. 

"No  radiant  pearl  which  crested  fortune  wears, 
No  gem  that,  sparkling,  hangs  from  beauty's  ears, 
Not  the  bright  stars  which  night's  blue  arch  adorn, 
Nor  rising  sun  that  gilds  the  vernal  morn, 
Shine  witli  such  luster  as  the  tear  that  breaks 
Pot  Others'  woe,  down  virtue's  lovely  cheeks." 

I  ueli.  ( Ihristian  brother,  the  sympathy  of  your 
home'.'  It  will  he  a  safeguard  against  the  follies 
and  the  false  interests  of  life.  It  will  restrict  the 
fashionable  tdste  and  sentiments  of  the  age.  It 
will  teach  wisdom  to  the  pious  mother,  and  be  a 
■ore  defense  against  the  dangers  and  indiscretions 
.if  the  Dursery  and  fashionable  hoarding  school. 
[Jnder  its  influence,  mothers  will  not  trust  the 


HOME-SYMPATHY.  107 

souls  of  their  children  to  the  guardianship  of  irre- 
ligious nurses,  nor  expose  them  to  the  perils  of  a 
corrupted  and  heartless  fashion.  They  will  deny 
themselves  the  ruinous  pleasures  of  a  gay  and 
reckless  association  with  the  world  ;  and  with 
maternal  solicitude,  attend  upon  the  opening  of 
those  buds  of  life  which  God  has  committed  to 
them.  The  pious  mother  will  wield  her  pow cl- 
over her  children,  by  the  force  of  this  sympathy ; 
for  her's  is  the  deepest,  purest,  and  most  saving 
of  all  home-sympathy : 

"  Earth  may  chill 
And  sever  other  sympathies,  and  prove 
How  weak  all  human  bonds  arc — it  may  kill 
Friendship,  and  crush  hearts  with  them — but  the  thrill 
Of  the  maternal  breast  must  ever  move 
In  blest  communion  with  her  child,  and  fill 
Even  heaven  itself  with  prayers  and  hymns  of  love !" 


CHAPTER  XV. 


FAMILY    PltAYER. 


"  Hush  !  'tis  a  holy  hour, — the  quiet  room 
Seems  like  a  temple,  'while  yon  soft  lamp  sheds 
A  faint  and  starry  radiance  through  the  room 
And  the  sweet  stillness,  down  on  yon  bright  heads, 
With  all  their  clustering  locks,  untouched  ]>y  care, 
And  bowed,  as  flowers  are  bowed  with  night, — in  prayer. 
•l.i/.c  on,  'tis  lovely — childhood's  Up  and  cheek 
Mantling  beneath  its  earnest  brow  of  thought!" 

Home-sympathy  will  prompt  to  family  devo- 
tion. The  latter  is  the  fruit  of  the  former.  A 
prayerless  home  la  destitute  of  religious  sympa- 
thy. The  family  demands  prayer.  Its  relation 
'•'  Grod,  its  dependence  and  specific  duties,  in- 
volve devotion.  Communion  with  God  consti' 
tutes  a  pari  of  the  intercourse  and  society  of 
home.  The  necessity  of  family  prayer  arises  out 
of  the  home-constitution  and  mission.  Family 
mercies  and  blessings;  family  dangers  and  weak- 
nesses;   family  hopes  and    temptations, — all  be- 


FAMILY    PRAYER.  109 

speak  the  importance  of  family  worship.  If  you 
occupy  the  responsible  station  of  a  parent;  if 
God  has  made  you  the  head  of  a  religious  house- 
hold, and  you  profess  to  stand  and  live  on  the 
Lord's  side,  then,  tell  me,  have  you  not  by  im- 
plication vowed  to  maintain  regular  family  wor- 
ship ?  Besides,  the  benefits  and  privilege  of 
prayer  develop  the  obligation  of  the  family  to 
engage  in  it.  Is  not  every  privilege  a  duty? 
And  if  it  is  a  duty  for  individuals  and  congrega- 
tions to  pray,  is  it  not,  for  a  similar  reason,  the 
duty  of  the  family  to  establish  her  altar  of  devo- 
tion ?  As  a  family  we  daily  need  and  receive 
mercies,  daily  sin,  are  tempted  and  in  danger 
every  day  ;  why  not  then  as  a  family  daily  pray  ? 
But  what  is  family  prayer?  It  is  not  simply 
individual  prayer,  not  the  altar  of  the  closet; 
but  the  home-altar,  around  which  all  the  mem- 
bers gather  morning  and  evening,  as  a  family- 
unit,  with  one  heart,  one  faith  and  one  hope,  to 
commune  with  God  and  supplicate  his  mere}*. 
"In  the  devotion  of  this  little  assembly,"  says 
Dr.  Dwight,  "parents  pray  for  their  children, 
and  children  for  their  parents;  the  husband  for 
the  wife,  and  the  wife  for  the  husband;  while 
brothers  and  sisters  send  up  their  requests  to  the 
throne  of  Infinite  Mercy,  to  call  down  blessings 
on  each  other.  Who  that  wears  the  name  of  a 
man  can  be  indifferent  here?  Must  not  the  ven- 
erable character  oi'  the  parent,  the  peculiar  ten- 
derness of  the  conjugal  union,  the  affectionate 
intimacy  of  the  filial  and  fraternal  relations; 
8 


170  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

must  not  the  nearest  of  relations  long  existing, 
the  interchange  of  kindness  long  continued,  and 
the  oneness  of  interests  long  cemented, — all 
warm  the  heart,  heighten  the  importance  of 
every  petition,  and  increase  the  fervor  of  every 
devotional  effort?" 

AVhat  scene  can  be  more  lovely  on  earth,  more 
like  the  heavenly  home,  and  more  pleasing  to 
God,  than  that  of  a  pious  family  knee  ling  with 
one  accord  around  the  home-altar,  and  uniting 
their  supplications  to  their  Father  in  heaven! 
How  sublime  the  act  of  those  parents  who  thus 
pray  for  the  blessing  of  God  upon  their  house- 
hold !  How  lovely  the  scene  of  a  pious  mother 
gathering  her  little  ones  around  her  at  the  bed- 
side, and  teaching  them  the  privilege  of  prayer! 
And  what  a  safeguard  is  this  home-devotion, 
against  all  the  machinations  of  Satan  ! 

"  Our  hearths  are  altars  all ; 
The  prayers  of  hungry  souls  and  poor, 
Like  armed  angels  at  the  door, 

Our  unseen  foes  appal !" 

Ii  is  this  which  makes  home  a  type  of  heaven, 
the  dwelling  place  of  God.  The  family  altar  is 
heaven's  threshold.  And  happy  are  those  chil- 
dren who  at  that  altar,  have  been  consecrated 
by  a  father's  blessing,  baptized  by  a  mother's 
tears,  and  borne  up  to  heaven  upon  their  joint 
petitions,  as  a  voluntary  thank-offering  to  "God. 
The  home  that  has  honored  God  with  an  altar  of 
■  devotion  may  well  be  called  blessed. 


FAMILY   PRAYER.  171 

"  Child,  amidst  the  flowers  at  play, 
While  the  red  light  fades  away  ; 
Mother,  with  thine  earnest  eye 
Ever  following  silently ; 
Father,  by  the  breeze  of  eve 
Called  thy  warmest  work  to  leave  ; 
Pray !— ere  yet  the  dark  hours  be, 
Lift  the  heart  and  bend  the  knee." 

The   duty  thus  to  establish   family  prayer  is 
imperative.     It  is  a  duty  because  God  commands 
it,  and  the  mission  of  home  cannot  be  fulfilled 
without  it.     It  is  a  duty  because  a  privilege  and 
a  blessing,  and  the  condition  of  parental  efficien- 
cy in  all  other  duties ;—  because  the  moral  and 
spiritual  growth  of  the  child  depends  upon  it. 
It  is  one  of  the  most  effectual  means  of  grace. 
All  the  instructions,  all  the  discipline  and  exam- 
ple,  of  the   parent  will  be  in  vain  without   it. 
Hence  both  natural  affection  and  christian  faith 
should   suggest  its  establishment,      Parents  are 
bound  to  do  so  by  their  covenant  vows,  by  the 
obligations  of  baptism,  by  all  the  interests  and 
hopes  of  their  household.     They  have  dedicated 
their  children  to  God,  and  pledged  themselves 
to  educate  them  for  Him,  and  to  train  them  up 
in  His  ways.     Tell  me  then,  can  you  be  faithful 
to   these   vows   and   obligations   without   family 
prayer?     Can  you  fulfil  your  covenant  engage- 
ments, hope  to  receive  your  reward,  and  see  your 
children  grow  up  in  the  nurture  of  the  Lord's 
vineyard,  without  rearing  up  a  family  altar? 
The  promised  blessings  of  family  prayer  show 


172  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

that  every  faithful  Christian  home  must  have  its 

family  altar.  These  are  unspeakable.  It  is  a 
Bare  defence  against  sin;  it  sanctifies  the  mem- 
bers, and  throws  a  hallowed  atmosphere  around 

our  household.  The  child  will  conic  under  its 
restraining  and  Bavins:  influence.  A  mother's 
prayer  will  haunt  the  child,  and  draw  it  as  if  by 
magic  power  towards  herself  in  heaven  : 

"  lie  might  forgot  her  melting  prayer, 
While  pleasure's  pulses  madly  fly, 
But  in  the  still,  unbroken  air, 
Her  gentle  tones  come  stealing  by, — 
And  years  of  sin  and  manhood  flee, 
And  leave  him  at  his  mother's  knee  !" 

It  affords  home  security  and  happiness,  re- 
moves family  friction,  and  causes  all  the  com- 
plicated wheels  of  the  home-machinery  to  move 
on  noiselessly  and  smoothly.  It  promotes  union 
and  harmony,  expunges  all  selfishness,  allays 
petulant  feelings  and  turbulent  passions,  de- 
stroys peevishness  of  temper,  and  makes  home- 
Intercourse  holy  and  delightful.  It  causes  the 
members  to  reciprocate  each  other's  affections, 
hushes  the  voice  of  recrimination,  and  exerts  a 
softening  and  harmonizing  influence  over  each 
heart.  The  dew  of  Kcriiion  falls  upon  the  home 
where  prayer  is  wont  to  be  made.  Its  members 
enjoy  the  good  and  the  pleasantness  of  dwelling 
ther  in  unity.  It  gives  tone  and  intensity 
t<»  their  affections  and  sympathies:  it  throws  a 
sunshine    around   their   hopes  and  interests:    it 


FAMILY   PRAYER.  173 

increases  their  happiness,  and  takes  away  the 
poignancy  of  their  grief  and  sorrow.  It  avail- 
ed much,  therefore,  both  for  time  and  eternity.  ■ 
Its  voice  has  sent  many  a  poor  prodigal  home  to 
his  father's  house.  Its  answer  has  often  been, 
"  This  man  was  born  there  !"  The  child,  kneel* 
ing  beside  the  pious  mother,  and  pouring  forth 
its  infant  prayer  to  God,  must  attract  the"  notice 
of  the  heavenly  host,  and  receive  into  its  soul 
-ta  power  of  a  new  life. 

"  "Who  would  not  be  an  infant  now, 

To  breathe  an  infant's  prayer  ? 

0  manhood  !  could  thy  spirit  kneel 

Beside  that  sunny  child, 

As  fondly  pray,  and  purely  feel, 

With  soul  as  undefiled. 

That  moment  would  encircle  thee, 

With  light  and  love  divine  j 

Thy  gaze  might  dwell  on  Deity, 

And  heaven  itself  be  thine." 

And  yet  the  neglect  of  family  prayer  is  a  very 
general  defect  of  the  Christian  home.  No  home- 
duty  has  indeed  been  more  grossly  neglected  and 
abused.  Some  attend  to  it  only  occasionally; 
some  only  in  times  of  affliction  and  distress,  as 
if  then  only  they  needed  to  pray  to  God;  some 
only  on  the  Sabbath,  as  if  that  were  the  only  day 
to  commune  with  Him.  Some  perform  it  only 
in  a  formal  way,  having  the  form  without  the 
spirit  of  prayer,  as  if  God  did  not  require  the 
fervent,  in  order  to  the  effectual,  prayer  that 
availeth  much. 


174  THE    CHRISTIAN    BOMS. 

As  a  general  thing,  at  the  present  day,  not 
moiv  than  three  or  four  families  out  of  a  whole 
congregation,  have  established  tin-  family  altar. 
The  parents  may  engage  in  closet  prayer,  l>ut 
their  children  arc  Btrangera  to  the  fact.  Their 
devotions  they  Beem  zealous  to  conceal,  as  if 
they  were  ashamed  of  their  piety.  Can  this  be 
right?  Is  this  the  will  of  God ?.  No!  methinks 
if  the  parent  is  faithful  to  the  duty  of  private 
prayer,  he  cannot  omit  the  duty  and  privilege 
of  family  devotion.  But  why  neglect  family 
prayer?  Are  3-011  ashamed  of  3-our  children? 
I  hive  you  no  time?  Then  you  are  unworthy 
of  a  family,  and  should  not  profess  to  act  towards 
them  as  the  steward  of  God.  Think  you  that 
God  will  not  answer  and  bless  your  prayers? 
What  more  could  you  do  and  hope  for  your 
children  than  to  offer  up  supplications  for  them 
to  God? 

"  What  could  a  mother's  prayer, 
In  all  the  wildest  ecstacy  of  hope, 
Ask  for  her  darling  like  the  bliss  of  heaven?" 

Many  seek  by  the  most  frivolous  excuses,  to 
justify  their  ueglect  of  family  prayer.  Some  will 
urge  the  press  of  other  duties,  alleging  thai  other 
engagements  prevent  it  This  is  false.  God  lays 
upon  you  no  engagement  that  is  designed  to  su- 
persede the  necessity  of  prayer.  Besides,  you 
will  find  thai  yon  really  waste  more  time  than 
it  would  require  for  family  devotion.  And  furth- 
er, can  yon  spend  your  time  to  better  purpose 


FAMILY    PRAYER.  175 

than  in  family  prayer?  I  think  not.  It  is  the 
best  husbandry  of  time.  Says  Philip  Henry  to 
his  children,  "  Prayer  and  provender  hinder  no 
man's  journey."  But  another  pleads  incapacity. 
lie  has  not  the  gift  of  speech,  and  cannot  make 
an  eloquent  prayer.  This  is  no  excuse.  Prayer 
is  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Spirit;  and  if  you  have 
the  spirit  of  prayer,  you  will  iind  words  for  its 
utterance.  Besides,  eloquence  does  not  condi- 
tion the  efficacy  of  prayer.  "Where  there  is 
a  willing  mind,  it  is  accepted  according  to  that 
a  man  hath,  and  not  according  to  that  he  hath 
not." 

"  When  we  of  helps  or  hopes  are  quite  bcreavcn, 
Our  humble  prayers  have  entrance  into  heaven." 

"We  have  the  capacity  to  ask  for  what  we  ear- 
nestly desire  and  feel  the  need  of.  The  anger 
of  God  will  kindle  against  you  for  this  excuse, 
as  it  kindled  against  Moses  for  a  similar  one. 
"When  He  called  him  to  be  his  messenger  to  Is- 
rael, Moses  said,  as  you  do,  "0  my  Lord,  I  am 
not  eloquent, — I  am  slow  of  speech,  and  of  a 
slow  tongue.  And  the  Lord  said  unto  him,  who 
hath  made  man's  mouth?  or,  who  maketh  the 
dumb,  or  deaf,  or  the  seeing,  or  the  blind?  Have 
not  I  the  Lord  ?  The  anger  of  the  Lord  was  kin- 
dled against  him." 

Let  me,  therefore,  urge  upon  you,  Christian 
parents,  to  make  prayer  a  prominent  element  of 
your  home.  You  should  be  a  priest  unto  your 
family, — a  leader  in  home-communion  with  God. 


17G  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

Your  children  Lav.'  a  right  to  expect  this  from 
yon.  If  you  are  a  church  member,  how  Btrange 
ami  startling  must  be  the  ennnciation  in  heaven,^ 
that  you  are  a  prayerless  christian,  and  your  home 
destitute  of  the  altar!  And  do  you  think  that, 
continuing  thus,  you  will  be  admitted  into  that 
heavenly  home  where  there  is  one  unbroken  voice 
of  prayer  and  praise  to  God  ?  Do  you  uot  tremble 
at  the  prospect  of  those  tremendous  denunciations 
which  the  Lord  has  uttered  against  those  who  nesr- 
led  and  abuse  the  privilege  of  prayer?  "Pour 
out  thy  fury  upon  the  families  that  have  not  called 
upon  thy  name."  Oh  then,  make  your  home  a 
house  of  prayer;  lead  your  little  flock  in  sweet 
communion  with  God.  Establish  in  them  the 
habit  of  devotion:  Shape  their  consciences  by 
prayer.  In  this  way  you  shall  Becure  for  yourself 
and  them  the  blessing  of  God:  His  smile  shall 
ever  rest  upon  your  household:  Salvation  shall 
be  the  heritage  of  your  children  ;  they  will  grow 
up  in  the  divine  life;  and  will  live  amid  the  bless- 
ings of  prayer,  and  he  faithful  to  its  requisitions: 

"Hold   tlic  little  hands  in  prayer,   teach  the   'weak    knees 

their  kneeling  ; 
Let  him  Bee  thee  speaking  to  thy  God  ;  he  will  not  forget  it 

afterwards  ; 
When  old  and  gray  will  ho  feelingly  remember  a  mother's 

tender  piety, 
And  the  touching  recollection  of  her  prayers  shall  arrest  the 

Strong  man  in  his  mu  !" 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

HOME-EDUCATION. 

SECTION   I. 

THE    CHARACTER    OF    HOME    EDUCATION. 

•'  ScRATCn  the  green  rind  of  a  sapling,  or  wantonly  twist  it  in 
the  soil, 

The  scarred  and  crooked  oak  will  tell  of  thee  for  centuries  to 
come ; 

Wherefore,  though  the  voice  of  instruction  waiteth  for  the  ear 
of  reason, 

Yet  with  his  mother's  milk  the  young  child  drinketh  educa- 
tion." 

"We  come  now  to  consider  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant features  of  the  Christian  home,  viz.,  as  a 
school  for  the  education  of  character.  This  is 
important  because  of  its  vital  hearing  upon  the 
interests  of  home.  The  parent  is  not  only  king 
and  priest,  but  prophet  in  the  family.  It  is  the 
first  school.  We  there  receive  a  training  for  good 
'  or  for  evil.     There  is  not  a  word,  nor  an  emotion, 


8 


.178  THE    CHRISTIAN    SOME. 

nor  an  act,  nor  even  a  look  there,  which  does  not 
teach  the  child  something.  Character  is  ever  be- 
ing framed  and  moulded  there.  Every  habil  there 
formed,  and  every  action  there  performed,  imply  a 
principle  which  shall  enter  as  an  element  into  the 
future  character  of  the  child. 

What  is  home-education?  It  is  the  physical, 
mental,  moral,  and  religious  development  of  the 
child.  To  educate  means  to  draw  out  as  well  as 
to  instil  in.  It  mean-  the  evolution  of  our  nature 
as  well  as  the  communication  of  tacts  and  prin- 
ciples to  us.  The  home  training  does  not,  there- 
fore, consist,  of  simple  information,  but  is  a  nur- 
ture of  body*  mind  and  spirit.  From  "this  we  may 
infer  the  frequent  mistakes  of  parents,  in  substi- 
tuting mere  book-learning  for  a  training  up  and 
nurture,  dealingwith  their  children  as  if  they  had 
no  faculties,  and  making  the  entire  education  of 
their  children  mechanical  ami  empirical.  Home 
training  involves  the  development  of  all  their  fac- 
ulties as  a  unit  and  in  their  living  relation,  caus- 
ing the  body  to  move  right,  the  mind  to  think 
right,  the  heart  to  feel  right,  and  the  soul  to  love 
right;  changing  your  children  from  creatures  of 
mere  impulse,  prejudice  ami  passion,  to  thinking, 
loving  and  reasoning  beings.  To  educate  them  is 
to  bring  out  their  hidden  powers,  to  form  their 
character,  and  prepare  ihem  for  their  station  in 
life.  Thus  home-education  means  a  drawing  out. 
and  also  a  bringing  up. — a  training  for  mam  ami 
a  bringing  up  lor  God;  a  training  and  nurture 
for   the   family,  the   state,  and   the   church, — for 


HOME-EDUCATION.  179 

time  and  for  eternity.  These  must  be  done  to- 
gether; they  involve  but  one  process,  and  are 
conditioned  by  each  other.  We  cannot  sepa- 
rate a  secular  from  a  religious  education,  nei- 
ther can  we  separate  a  training  from  a  bringing 
up.  While  those  faculties  of  the  child  which 
exist  in  a  state  of  mere  involution,  arc  being 
developed,  its  nature  must  be  supplied  with  ap- 
propriate food;  and  every  element  of  its  educa- 
tion must  possess  the  plastic  power  of  evolving 
and  giving  speciiic  form  to  its  future  characte] 
and  destiny.  Thus  the  parent,  in  teaching,  must 
have  a  forming  influence  over  the  child;  and  his 
instructions  must  correspond  in  character,  kind 
and  extent,  with  the  nature,  wants,  and  destiny 
of  the  child. 

What  are  now  the  different  kinds  or  parts  of 
home-education  ? 

It  must  be  physical.  The  child  has  a  physical 
nature,  physical  wants,  and  is  related  to  the  ma- 
terial world ;  and  should,  therefore,  receive  a 
physical  education.  The  object  of  this  is  to  en- 
sure that  sound,  vigorous  frame  of  body  which 
is  in  it  only  a  great  blessing  in  itself,  but  an  essen- 
tial concomitant  of  a  sound  state  and  vigorous 
development  of  mind.  It  refers  to  the  proper 
management  of  the  health  of  the  child,  its  diet, 
habits  of  exercise  and  recreation.  Parents  should 
teach  their  children  the  nature  of  the  body,  its 
dangers,  and  bearing  upon  their  future  happi- 
ness. They  should  teach  them  to  govern  their 
appetite,  and  train  them  up  to  habits  of  exercise 


180  THE    CHRISTIAN'    HOME. 

and  curly  rising;  Tliis  part  of  home-education 
begins  in  the  nursery, — in  the  cradle,  and  is  not 
complete  till  the  body  is  brought  to  maturity  in 

all  its  Junctions.  Neglect  <>f  it  will  result  in 
physical  imbecility,  and  often  in  mental  derange- 
ment. The  object  secured  by  it  is,  tin-  preserva- 
tion of  the  health  and  constitution  of  the  child. 
In  tins  we  Bee  its  importance.  "What  is  your 
wealth,  your  station,  your  influence,  if  through 
your  neglect  of  your  children,  they  arc  deprived 
of  health,  and  grow  up  with  the  Beeds  of  imma- 
ture death  springing  up  in  their  system'.' 

In  the  physical  training  of  children  duo  regard 
should  be  had  to  cleanliness,  exercise,  diet  and 
dress.  Without  this  all  will  he  vain.  Many 
parents  keep  them  within  doors,  never  let  them 
enjoy  the  pure  air,  nor  exercise  the  muscular 
system,  keep  their  bodies  cooped  in  clothing ioo 
-mall,  and  feasted  upon  a  diet  unwholesome; 
ami  as  a  consequence,  they  show  a  Bickly  growth, 
and  become  unlit  either  for  the  burdens  or  for  the 
enjoyments  of  life. 

The  importance  of  exercise  in  the  open  air. 
ami  abstemiousness  in  diet,  is  proven  from  the 
health  of  those  nations  that  train  their  children 
in  all  the  exercise  of  riding,  Leaping,  running  and 

fencing,    and    Bubjed    them    from    infancy   to   the 

most  frugal  diet.  Thus  the  perfect  forms  and 
rigorous  health  of  the  Greeks,  the  Romans  and 
1'.  reians  were  the  fruit  of  national  attention  paid 
to  physical  education.  Every  home  should  have 
its  Buitable  gymnasium.     How  many  parents,  by 


HOME-EDUCATION.  181 

their  violation  of  the  laws  of  health,  prostitute 
the  strength  of  their  children  to  profligacy  and 
indolence. 

Home-education  must  be  intellectual.  Much 
of  human  character  and  happiness  depends  upon 
the  education  of  the  mind,  both  as  respects  the 
development  of  its  faculties  and  the  application 
of  legitimate  truth.  The  mind  is  the  man.  It 
is  not,  as  Locke  declares,  like  a  blank  sheet  of 
paper  or  a  chest  of  drawers;  but  has  an  intui- 
tional as  well  as  a  logical  consciousness,  innate 
ideas  as  well  as  capacities  of  receiving  truth  ; 
while  all  its  faculties  involve  a  unity,  and  exist 
in  the  child  in  a  state  of  involution ;  the  abuse 
and  neglect  of  one  of  which  will  have  their  bear- 
ing Upon  all  the  rest ;  and  the  mind  without 
proper  culture  in  its  undeveloped  state  in  the 
child,  will  show  the  symptoms  of  its  abuse  in 
the  man.  The  character  of  the  mind  in  the  man 
will  indicate  the  character  of  its  education  in  the 
child.  This  education  should  begin  properly 
with  the  first  symptoms  of  consciousness.  All 
the  powers  of  the  intellect  should  be  unfolded. 
Parents  should  be  the  Principals  in  the  mental 
training  of  their  children.  The  manner  and 
means  of  such  training  will  be  considered  in 
another  place.  Our  purpose  here  is  simply  to 
state  this  as  a  part  of  home-training.  From  the* 
important  part  which  the  mind  acts  in  the  great 
drama  of  human  life  and  destiny,  we.  think  that 
uo  intelligent  parent  would  presume  to  repudi- 
ate its  education. 


lM!  Tin:   CHRI8TIAB    SOME. 

Home-education  must  be  moral.  The  family 
should  develop  the  moral   nature  of  flie  child. 

The  will  should  be  educated;  the  Bense  of  right 
and  wrong  trained;  the  emotions  cultivated;  the 
passions  and  desires  ruled;  the  conscience  and 
faith  developed.  The  necessity  of  this  is 
in  the  fact  that  our  nature  is  fallen  and  pervert- 
ed. The  means  of  educating  the  moral  nature 
of  the  child,  are  natural  and  revealed.  Both  are 
of  divine  appointment.  The  former  are  those 
which  lie  within  the  circumference  of  our  abili- 
ties, and  will  be  of  no  avail  without  the  latter, 
which  are  found  in  the  scriptures  and  ehureh. 
What  are  some  of  these  means  V 

1.  Parents  should  place  their  children  in  cir- 
cumstances calculated  to  form  a  good  moral  char- 
acter. They  should  surround  them  with  a  moral 
atmosphere,  that  they  may,  with  their  first  breath, 
inhale  a  pure  moral  being,  and  escape  the  con- 
tamination of  evil.  This  has  been  called  "  the 
education  of  circumstances."  Much  of  character 
depends  upon  position  and  the  circumstances  in 
which  we  are  placed.  This  is  seen  in  the  differ- 
ence between  those  children  who  have  enjoyed 
the  true  christian  home,  and  those  who  have  not. 
deuce  the  first  thing  parents  should  consider  in 

the  moral  training  of  their,  children  is,  the  home 
in  which  they  are  to  be  trained.  This  home 
should   afford    them  circumstances  the  most  fa- 

voralile   to   their   moral    culture. 

-.  They  should  remove  all  temptation.  Evil 
propensities  are  called  forth  by  temptation;  and 


HOME-EDUCATION.  183 

a  child  loses  the  power  to  resist  in  proportion  to 
the  frequency  of  the  temptation.  Hence  the  ex- 
posure of  our  children  to  temptation  but  educates 
and  strengthens  their  propensities  to  evil.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  we  remove  temptation,  these 
propensities  will  not  be  called  into  activity,  and 
will  lose  their  tenacity.  Xcver  allow  your  chil- 
dren to  tamper  with  sin  in  any  form ;  teach  them 
how  to  resist  temptation;  inspire  them  with  an 
abhorrence  and  a  dread  of  all  evil.  In  this  way 
you  prepare  them  for  the  reception  and  reproduc- 
tion of  moral  truth. 

3.  Another  means  of  moral  education  is  ex- 
ample. This  has  been  styled  the  "education  of 
example."  This  has  more  power  than  precept. 
The  efficiency  of  this  means  is  based  upon  the 
natural  disposition  of  the  child  to  imitate.  Chil- 
dren take  their  parents  as  the  standard  of  all  that 
is  good,  and  will,  therefore,  follow  them  in  evil  as 
well  as  in  good.  Hence  the  parent's  example 
should  be  a  correct  model  of  sound  morality. 
The  child  will  be  the  moral  counterpart  of  the 
parent.  You  can  see  the  parent's  home  in  the 
child.  He  is  the  moral  daguerreotype  of  his  par- 
ent. This  but  shows  the  importance  of  good  ex- 
ample in  his  moral  training. 

4.  But  one  of  the  most  effectual  means  is;  by 
moral  training,  by  which  we  mean,  to  draw  out 
and  properly  direct  the  moral  faculties,  and  to 
habituate  them  to  the  exercise  of  moral  princi- 
ple. Without  this,  all  mechanical  education  will 
be  fruitless.      To  call  forth  muscular  power  you 


W  THE    CHRISTIAN    SOME. 

must  exercise  the  muscles.  So  you  give  the  child 
moral  Btamina  by  developing  its  moral  faculties, 
and  establishing  iu  them  the  habit  of  moral  ac- 
tion. This  training  has  its  foundation  in  the  taw 
of  habit  It  is  given,  with  its  results,  in  the  Word 
ofGod.  "  Train  up  a  child,"  &c.  A.lso  in  the  old 
maxim,  "Just  as  the  twig  is  bent,  the  tree  is  in- 
clined." 

'■'  Scratch  the  green  rind  of  a  sapling,  or  wantonly  twist  it  in 

the  soil, 
The  scarred  and  crooked  oak  will  tell  of  thee  for  centuries  to 

come  !" 

The  power  and  pleasure  of  doing  a  thing  de- 
pends much  upon  habit.  Our  nature  may  be- 
come habituated  to  good  or  evil ;  we  become  pas- 
sive in  proportion  to  the  habit.  How  important, 
then,  that  the  moral  powers  of  our  children  be 
trained  up  to  principles  and  action  until  habits 
of  good  thought,  feeling,  and  conduct,  are  estab- 
lished. Then  they  will  not  depart  from  them; 
and  their  moral  life  will  he  spontaneous  and  a 
source  of  enjoyment. 

'I'he  feelings,  appetites  and  instincts  of  children 
should  he  thus  specially  trained.  According  to 
Dr.  Gall,  there  are  two  classes  of  feelings,  —  the 
selfish,  vet  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the 
individual;  ami  the  unselfish,  or  those  which  are 
directed  to  objects  apart  from  self,  \r\  liable  to 
abuse  and  misdirection.  Both  of  these  demand 
a  home-training.  The  parent  should  give  to  each 
it-  tine  direction,  restrain  and  harmonize  them  iu 


HOME-EDUCATION.  185 

their  relations  and  respective  spheres  of  activity, 
and  bring  them  under  law,  and  place  before  each 
its  legitimate  object  and  end.  Then,  and  then 
only,  do  they  become  laws  of  self-preservation. 
The  natural  appetites  are  subject  to  abuse,  and 
when  unrestrained,  defeat  the  very  ends  of  their 
existence.  Thus  the  appetite  for  food  may  be 
over-indulged  through  mistaken  parental  kind- 
ness, until  habits  of  sensualism  are  established, 
and  the  child  becomes  a  glutton,  and  finds  the 
grave  of  infamy. 

How  many  children  have  been  thus  destroyed 
in  soul  and  body  by  parental  indulgence  and  neg- 
lect of  their  natural  feelings  and  appetites.  The 
feeling  of  cruelty,  revenge,  majicc,  falsehood,  tale- 
bearing, dishonesty,  vanity,  &c,  have,  in  the  same 
way  and  by  the  same  indulgence,  been  engendered 
in  the  children  of  Christian  parents.  The  same, 
too,  may  be  said  of  the  unselfish  feelings.  These 
have  been  called  the  moral  sentiments  ;  and  upon 
their  proper  training  depends  the  formation  of  a 
positive  moral  character.  The  conscience  comes 
under  this  head.  The  parent  should  train  that 
important  faculty  of  the  child.  It  should  be 
taught  to  act  from  the  standpoint  of  conscience, 
and  to  form  the  habit  of  conscientiousness  in 
word  and  deed.  This  includes  the  training  of 
the  motives  also,  and  of  all  the  cardinal  moral 
virtues,  such  as  justice,  honor,  chastity,  venera- 
tion. kindnes8,  kc.  "Teach  your  children,"'  says 
Goodrich  in  his  Fireside  Education,  "never  to 
wound  a  person's  feelings  because  he  is  poor,  be- 


18G  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

cause  he  is  deformed.  because  he  is  unfortunate* 
because  he  holds  an  humble  station  in  Life,  be- 
cause he  is  poorlv  clad,  because  he  is  weak  in 
body  and  mind,  because  lie  is  awkward,  or  be- 
cause the  God  of  nature  has  bestowed  upon  him 
a  darker  skin  than  theirs." 

This  early  education  should  commence  as  soon 
as  the  necessities  of  the  child  demand  it.  A  child 
should  he  taught  what  is  necessary  for  it  to  know 
and  practice  as  soon  as  that  necessity  exists  and 
the  child  is  capable  of  learning.  Scripture  sanc- 
tions this.  Our  fathers  did  so.  It  was  the  in- 
junction of  Moses  to  the  children  of  Israel:  Dent, 
vi.,  6-9.  God  commands  you  to  break  up  the  tal- 
low ground  and  sow  the  good  seed  at  the  tirst 
dawn  of  the  spring-life  of  your  children,  and  then 
to  pray  for  the  "early  and  the  latter  rain," 

"  Teaching,  with  pious  care,  the  dawning  light 
Of  infant  intellect  to  know  tho  Lord."' 

Home-education  should  be  religious.  As  the 
child  has  a  religious  nature,  religious  wants,  and  a 
religious  end  to  accomplish,  it  should  receive  from 

its  parents  a  religious  training.  Religion  is  edu- 
cational. We  are  commanded  to  teach  religion 
to  our  children.  The  admonition  to  "train  up  a 
child  in  the  way  he  should  go."  and  to  "bring  him 
up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord,"  is 
a  scripture  Banction  of  religious  education.  Na- 
ture and  the  bible  are  the  text-books  for  such  a 
training.  The  child  should  he  taught  natural  and 
revealed  religion.      Such  education  involves  the 


HOME-EDUCATION.  18T 

development  of  the  child's  religious  nature,  and 
the  diligent  use  of  those  means  by  which  it  may 
become  an  adopted  child  of  God. 

Education  should  1>e  suited  to  the  wants  and 
the  destination  of  the  child.  Religion  is  its  first 
want, — the  one  thing  needful,  the  chief  concern  ; 
and  should,  therefore,  he  the  first  object  of  atten- 
tion in  home-training.  The  fear  and  love  of  God 
should  be  the  first  lesson  taught.  This  is  the  be- 
ginning of  wisdom.  Teach  your  children  to  love 
Him  above  father  and  mother,  sister  and  brother. 
The  child  is  capable  of  such  ideas  of  God.  Chil- 
dren can  possess  the  sentiment  of  Goc^;  and  when 
this  is  instilled  and  developed  as  a  rudiment  of 
their  character,  they  have  a  preparation  for  the 
grace  of  God.  What  is  the  mere  secular,  with- 
out such  a  religious  education  ?  It  is  education 
without  its  essence  ;  for  piety  is  the  essence  of  all 
education.  Irreligious  training  is  destructive, — 
a  curse  rather  than  a  blessing, — only  a  training  up 
to  crime  and  to  ruin.  "  The  mildew  of  a  cul- 
tivated, but  depraved  mind,  blights  whatever  it 
falls  upon."  "Religion,"  says  Dr.  Barrow,  "is 
the  only  science,  which  is  equally  and  indispen- 
sably necessary  to  men  of  every  rank,  every  age, 
and  every  profession."  "The  end  of  learning," 
says  Milton,  "is  to  repair  the  ruins  of  our  first 
parents,  by  requiring  to  know  God  aright,  and 
out  of  that  knowledge,  to  love  Him,  and  to  imi- 
tate Him." 

We  see,  therefore,  that  religious  training  is  the 
only  true  palladium  of  your  children's  happiness 


188 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


and  destiny;  and  should  be  the  great  end  of  all 
home-teaching.  Tinge  all  their  thoughts  and 
feelings  with  a  sense  of  eternity.  Train  them 
up  to  build  for  another  world.  Stamp  the  im- 
press of  a  future  life  upon  their  tender  hearts. 
Beget  in  them  longings  after  immortality.  See 
that  their  designs  extend  beyond  this  world.  A.8 
the  Spartan  mother  gave  character  to  her  nation 
by  the  instructions  she  gave  her  child,  so  yon 
give  character  to  your  religion,  your  church, 
your  home,  by  the  spiritual  culture  of  your  off- 
spring. Let  the  jewels  you  give  them  he  the 
virtues  and*  the  gifts  of  the  Holy  Ghost, — the 
ornaments  of  a  meek  and  quiet  spirit. 

"  Take  the  germ,  and  make  it 
A  bud  of  moral  beauty.     Let  the  dews 
Of  knowledge  and  the  light  of  virtue,  wake  it 
In  richest  fragrance  and  in  purest  hues." 

Childhood  is  the  period  in  which  the  principles 
of  Christianity  can  be  the  most  effectually  engraft- 
ed in  our  nature.  Its  pliability  at  that  period  in- 
sures its  free  assimilation  to  the  spirit  and  truth 
of  religion.  "Would  to  God,"  says  St.  Pierre, 
"I  had  preserved  the  sentiment  of  the  existence 
of  the  Supreme  Being,  and  of  His  principal  attri- 
bute-, as  pure  as  I  had  it  in  my  earliest  years!" 
It  is  the  heart  more  than  the  head  that  religion 
demands;  and  you  can  till  the  young  heart  with 
sentiments  of  God  better  than  if  you  wait  till  it 
grows  hard  as  adamant  in  sin.  You  can  elevate 
the  soul  of  your  child  to  God,  and  teach  it  to 


HOME-EDUCATION.  189 

raise  its  little  hands  and  voice  in  prayer  to  the 
Most  High.  You  can  teach  it  this  from  the  book 
of  nature  and  of  revelation, — from  the  daisies  that 
spring  up  among  the  grass  upon  which  it  frolics, 
by  the  mellow  fruits  after  which  it  longs,  by  the 
stars  that  shine  in  unclouded  luster  above  it,  and 
by  the  breezes  which  ruffle  its  silken  curls,  and 
bring  perfume  to  its  smiling  face. 

To  the  mother  especially,  is  committed  the  reli- 
gious education  of  the  child  at  home.  She  is  emi- 
nently adapted,  if  herself  a  Christian,  for  such  a 
work.  Her  love,  her  piety,  which  breathes  in 
every  word,  in  every  look,  makes  her  instructions 
effectual  and  pleasing. 

"  'Tis  pleasing  to  lie  schooled  by  female  lips  and  eyes, 
They  smile  so  when  one's  right,  and  when  one's  wrong, 
They  smile  still  more ;  and  then  there 
Comes  encouragement  in  the  soft  hand 
Over  the  brow,  perhaps  even  a  chaste  kiss — 
I  learned  the*  little  that  I  know  by  this." 

They  can  better  reach  and  train  the  heart.  Re- 
ligion is  heart-wisdom.  "My  son,  give  me  thy 
heart!"  "We  may  use  the  head  as  an  avenue  to 
the  heart,  yet  nothing  is  done  in  the  religion  of 
our  children  until  the  heart  be  carried.  It  is  only 
in  that  inner  shrine  that  there  can  be  deposited 
the  wisdom  that  is  from  above,  and  only  then  will 
they  be  made  wise  unto  salvation.  And  who  is 
better  able  to  storm  and  carry  that  inner  citadel, 
and  lead  its  subdued  inmates  to  the  Cross,  than 
the  pious,  tender-hearted,  soliciting  mother! 


100 


THi:    CIIHIPTIAX    HOME. 


me  parents  object  t<>  the  religious  training  of 
their  children,  "because,"'  Bay  they,  "there  is  dan- 
ger of  having  their  minds  biased  by  some  particu- 
lar creed;  they  should  be  left,  therefore,  t<>  them- 
selves  till  they  are  capable  of  making  :i  choice, 
and  then  let  them  choose  their  creed."  This  Is 
all  a  miserable  subterfuge,  and  in  dired  opposi- 
tion to  the  explicit  command  of  God  and  the 
whole  tenor  of  the  gospel  plan  of  salvation.  It 
goes  upon  the  assumption  that  religion  is  hut  an 
opinion — a  subscription  to  a  certain  creed,  learn- 
ing certain  doctrines — a  mere  thing  for  the  head. 
Tell  me,  is  it  worse  to  bias  their  minds  to  a  par* 
ticular  creed,  than  to  let  them  grow  up  biased  to 
the  world,  to  the  Devil  and  all  his  works?  Is  it 
all  of  home,  religious  culture  to  bias  them  to  a 
particular  creed  ?  Besides,  is  it  not  the  right,  yea, 
the  duty  of  parents  to  bias  their  children  in  favor 
of  the  religious  creed  of  the  parental    home?     It 

shows,  therefore,  that  those  parents  who,  for  this 
reason,  object  to  religious  training,  have  hut  little 
love  l'ir.  and  confidence  in,  their  own  creed,  or 
they  would  not  shrink  from  biasing  their  children 
to  it. 

To  encourage  Christian  parents  to  give  their 
children  a  good  religious  education,  Q-od  has 
given  them  numerous  examples,  from  both  sa- 
cred  ami  profane  history,  of  conversion  and  emi- 
nent piety  in  the  age  of  childhood,  as  the  direct 
fruit  of  early  parental  instruction.  Look,  for  in- 
stance, at  the  chilil  Samuel  worshiping  the  Lord. 
Look,  too.  at   the  case  (if  .Moses  and  of  David,  of 


HOME-EDUCATION. 


191 


Joseph  and  of  John  the  Baptist.  Dr.  Doddridge, 
we  are  told,  "was  brought  up  in  the  early  knowl- 
edge of  religion  by  his  pious  parents."  His  moth- 
er "taught  him  the  history  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  before  he  could  read,  by  the  assistance 
of  some  Dutch  tiles  in  the  chimney  of  the  room 
where  they  commonly  sat ;  and  her  wise  and  pious 
reflections  on  the  stories  there  represented  were 
the  means  of  making  some  good  impressions  on 
his  heart,  which  never  wore  out.-'  An  eminently 
pious  minister  thus  writes  to  his  parents,  confirm- 
ing by  his  own  blessed  experience  the  early  fruits 
of  religious  training:  "I  verily  believe  that  had 
my  religious  training  been  confined  to  the  glean- 
ings of  the  Sabbath  school,  instead  of  the  steady 
enforcement  of  the  Mosaic  arrangement  at  home 
by  my  parents,  I  might  now  be  pursuing  a  far  dif- 
ferent course,  and  living  for  a  far  different  cud. 
Many,  very  many  times,  as  early  in  childhood  as 
I  can  recollect,  has  the  Spirit  of  God  convicted 
me  of  sin,  as  my  father  at  home  has  taught  me 
out  of  the  scriptures,  and  I  cannot  easily  forget 
that  the  same  high-priest  of  the  home-church 
once  tore  from  me  the  lvypocrite's  hope.  And 
that  dear  place  had  another  to  carry  on  the  work, 
gentler  bin  not  weaker:  and  memory  recalls  a 
mother  pressing  her  face  close  to  mine  as  she 
often  knelt  with  me  before  the  mercy-seat.  I 
will  not  cast  reproach  on  any  institution  which 
has  been  productive  of  good  to  myself  and  to 
others,  but  with  profound  gratitude  will  say, 
home    was    the    place    of   my    spiritual    nativity. 


192  THE  CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

and  my  parents  were  God's  instruments  in  Lead- 
ing me  to  Christ!" 

The  eminent  piety  of  Dr.  Dwight  stands  on 
record  as  the  fruit  of  a  mother's  faithful  reli- 
gions training;  for  "she  taught  him  from  the 
very  dawn  of  reason  to  fear  <;<>d  and  keep  His 
commandments,  and  the  impressions  then  made 
upon  his  mind  in  infancy,  were  never  efiaced." 
The  mother  of  young  Edwards  is  another  exam- 
ple of  early  piety  as  the  fruit  of  religious  home- 
culture.  The  aged  Polycarp,  when  under  arrest 
during  the  persecution  under  Marcus  Aurelius,  in 
reply  to  the  injunction  of  the  pro-consul,  "Swear, 
curse  Christ,  and  I  release  thee!"  exclaimed,  "Six 
and  eighty  years  have  I  served  Him,  and  He  has 
done  me  nothing  but  good  ;  and  how  could  I  curse 
Him,  my  Lord  and  Saviour?"  Thus  showing  him- 
self to  have  been  a  Christian  at  the  early  age  of 
four  years!  It  was  through  the  instructions  of 
his  grandmother  Lois,  and  his  mother  Eunice,  that 
young  Timothy  '  knew  from  a  child  the  holy  scrip- 
tures, which  made  him  wise  unto  salvation." 

Ami  what  an  effectual  antidote  are  such  in- 
structions against  vice  and  temptation!  How 
many  have  by  them  been  arrested  from  the  de- 
vouring jaws  of  infidelity. and  ruin!  Thus  it  was 
with  John  Randolph,  who  said  that  in  the  days 
of  the  French  revolution,  when  infidel  reason 
to<»k  the  place  of  (iod  and  the  bible,  and  infi- 
delity   prowled    unmolested    throughout    Frame, 

he  would  have  become  an  infidel  himself,  had 

it  not  been  for  the  remembrance  of  his  child- 


HOME-EDUCATION.  193 

hood  days,  when  his  pious  mother  taught  him 
to  kneel  by  her  side,  and  to  say,  "Our  Father, 
who  art  in  heaven !"  Thus,  too,  with  the  pious 
and  learned  J.  Q.  Adams,  who  daily  repeated  the 
little  prayers  his  mother  taught  him  when  a  child. 

Thus,  then,  we  see  that  parents  are  encour- 
aged by  the  most  brilliant  examples  of  history, 
to  teach  their  children  religion  at  the  home- 
fireside,  "when  thou  liest  down  and  risest  up." 
Oh,  let  the  gentle  courtesies  and  sweet  endear- 
ments of  home  engrave  the  Word  and  Spirit 
of  God  upon  their  tender  hearts.  "Wait  not 
until  they  are  matured  in  rebellion,  and  sin  lay 
beds  of  flinty  rock  over  their  hearts ;  but  let 
them  breathe  from  infancy  the  atmosphere  of 
holiness,  and  drink  from  the  living  fountains  of 
divine  truth.  See  that  your  homes  become  their 
birth-place  in  the  spiritual  kingdom  of  Christ. 

Such  religious  training  will  be  the  guardian 
of  their  future  life,  and  will  fortify  them  against 
impending  evil.  What  made  Daniel  steadfast 
amidst  all  the  efforts  to  heathenize  him  during 
his  captivity  in  Babylon?  His  early  religious  cul- 
ture. It  was  the  means  of  his  preservation.  The 
truth  had  been  deeply  engraven  upon  his  heart 
when  young,  and  nothing  could  ever  efface  it. 
His  early  home-impressions  glowed  there  with 
pristine  freshness  and  power  amid  all  the  terrors 
which  surrounded  him  in  the  den  and  before  the 
throne  of  his  implacable  foe.  These  home-in- 
structions may  be  silenced  for  a  time,  but  never 
destroyed.  They  may  be  overshadowed,  but  not 
9 


104  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

annihilated.  Says  Dr.  Camming,  "The  words 
spoken  by  parents  to  their  children  in  the  pri- 
vacy of  home  are  Like  words  Bpoken  in  a  whis- 
pering-gallery, and  will  be  clearly  heard  at  the 
distance  of  years,  and  along  the  corridors  <>f  ages 
that  arc  yet  to  conn'.  They  will  prove  like  the 
lone  star  to  the  mariner  upon  a  dark  and  stormy 
sea,  associated  with  a  mother's  love,  with  a  father's 
example,  with  the  roof-tree  beneath  which  they 
lived  and  loved,  and  will  prove  in  after  life  to 
mould  the  man  and  enable  him  to  adorn  and  im- 
prove the  age  in  which  lie  is  placed." 

Be  faithful,  therefore,  in  the  spiritual  culture  ^\' 
your  children.  Give  them  "line  upon  line  and 
precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little  and  there  B 
little."  Lead  them  on  by  degrees  to  Christ  until 
each  indelible  impression  becomes  an  established 
habit.    In  the  morning  of  their  life  sow  the  seed  ; 

and  God  will  give  the  increase;  and  then  in  the 
day  of  judgment  your  children  will  rise  up  aud 
call  you  blessed ! 


HOME-EDUCATION. 


195 


SECTION  n. 


NEGLECT  AND  ABUSE  OF  HOME-EDUCATIOH. 


"  Accomplishments  have  taken  virtue's  place, 
And  wisdom  falls  before  exterior  grace  ; 
We  slight  the  precious  kernel  of  the  stone, 
And  toil  to  polish  its  rough  coat  alone. 
A  just  deportment,  manners  graced  with  ease, 
Elegant  phases,  and  figure  formed  to  please, 
Are  qualities  that  seem  to  comprehend 
Whatever  parents,  guardians,  schools  intend  ; 
Hence  all  that  interferes,  and  dares  to  clash 
With  indolence  and  luxury,  is  trash  !" 

Home-education  in  all  its  parts  is  most  sadly 
neglected  and  abused  at  the  present  day.  Many 
parents  think  that  the  office  of  teacher  is  not 
included  in  the  parental  character  and  mission. 
The  neglect  of  home-training  seems  to  arise  out 
of  an  existing  prejudice  against  it.  Some  think 
that  education  will  unfit  their  children  for  indus- 
try,— will  make  them  indolent  and  proud.  They 
regard  mental  culture  as  an  enemy  to  both  indus- 
try and  virtue.  Strange  delusion  !  The  mind  is 
given  to  use,  not  to  abuse  ;  and  its  abuse  is  no 
argument  against  its  proper  use.  God  lias  given 
the  mind,  and  intends  it  to  be  developed  and  cul- 
tivated. If,  therefore,  its  training  has  made  it  in- 
dolent and  dissipated,  it  only  proves  its  education 


196  THE   CHRISTIAN   IIOME. 

to  be  spurious.  You  might,  by  a  parity  of  reason- 
ing, blindfold  the  eye  that  it  might  not  be  covet- 
ens,  or  tie  up  the  hand  lest  it  pick  a  man's  pockety 

or  hobble  the  feet  lest  they  run  into  evil  "ways, 
ns  to  keep  the  mind  in  ignorance  lest  it  hecomo 
wicked. 

Besides,  we  find  more  real  indolence  and  wick* 
edness  among  the  ignorant  than  among  the  edu- 
cated; for  man  will  be  educated  in  something. 
If  you  do  not  educate  your  child  in  the  truths  of 
nature  and  religion,  be  assured  lie  will  become 
trained  in  falsehood  and  in  the  ways  of  Satan. 
"Uneducated  mind-is  uneducated  vice."  A  prop 
er  education  is  a  divine  alchemy  which  turns  a!1 
the  baser  parts  of  man's  nature  into  gold.  With- 
out it  all  is  discord  and  darkness  within  and  with- 
out. Besides,  ignorance  leads  to  misery  because 
it  leads  to  wickedness.  Dr.  Johnson  was  once 
asked,  "Who  is  the  most  miserable  man?"  Ho 
replied,  "That  man  who  cannot  read  on  a  rainy 
day  !"  It  has  well  been  said  by  Edmund  Burke 
that  "  Education  is  the  cheap  defense  of  nations." 
Why?  Because  it  prevents  vice,  poverty,  misery, 
and  relieves  the  state  of  the  support  of  paupers 
and  criminals.  "A  good  education,"  says  Miss 
Sedgwick,  "  is  a  young  man's  best  capital."  Says 
Governor  Everett  to  parents,  "Sow  the  seed  of 
instruction  in  your  son's  and  daughter's  minds. 
Tt  will  flourish  when  that  over-arching  heaven 
shall  pass  away  like  a  scroll,  and  the  eternal 
Mm  which  lightens  it,  shall  set  in  blood."  Says 
the    Rev.    Robert   Hall,    "I   am  persuaded   that 


HOME-EDUCATION.  197 

tlie  extreme  profligacy,  improvidence,  and  mis- 
ery, which  are  so  prevalent  among  the  laboring 
classes  in  many  countries,  are  chiefly  to  be  as- 
cribed to  the  want  of  education." 

What  indeed  can  we  look  for  but  wretched- 
ness and  guilt  from  that  child  that  has  been  left 
by  its  cruel  parents  to  grow  up  "darkening  in  the 
deeper  ignorance  of  mankind,  with  all  its  jeal- 
ousies, and  its  narrow-mindedness,  and  its  super- 
stitions, and  its  penury  of  enjoyments,  poor  amid 
the  intellectual  and  moral  riches  of  the  universe ; 
blind  in  this  splendid  temple  which  God  has  light- 
ed up,  and  famishing  amid  the  profusions  of  Om- 
nipotence ?"  And,  parents,  let  me  ask  you,  if 
you  thus  neglect  the  proper  education  of  your 
children,  and  as  a  consequence,  such  pauperism 
of  estate,  of  mind,  and  of  morals,  come  upon 
them,  will  you  not  have  to  answer  for  all  this 
to  God? 

"  Oh,  woe  for  those  who  trample  on  the  mind, 
That  fearful  thing !     They  know  not  what  they  do, 
Nor  what  they  deal  with  !" 

Your  children,  thus  neglected,  will  become  vic- 
tims to  inordinate  passion,  without  power  to 
discern  between  reality  and  illusion,  ignorant 
of  what  is  true  happiness,  living  for  mere  sense, 
with  their  moral  .nature  enclosed  in  the  iron 
mail  of  superstition,  while  the  good  seeds  of 
truth  sown  upon  their  hearts  kk  wither  away,  be- 
cause they  have  no  depth  of  earth." 

Parents  cannot,  therefore,  neglect  the  educa- 


198 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


tion  of  their  children  without  Incurring  disgrace 
and  guilt  before  God  and  man.  They  will  meet 
a  merited  retribution  both  here  and  hereafter. 
The  justice  of  this  is  forcibly  illustrated  in  a  law 
of  the  Icelanders, whioh  makes  thecourt  inquire, 
when  a  child  is  accursed,  whether  the  parents  have 
given  the  offender  a  good  education?  And  it'  not, 
the  court  inflicts  the  punishment  on  the  parents. 
This  hut  expresses  the  higher  law  of  God  which 
holds  parents  responsible  for  the  training  of  their 
children.  Listen  to  the  threatening  voice  of  God 
in  history.  Grates,  an  ancient  philosopher,  used 
to  say  that  if  he  could  reach  the  highest  eminence 
in  the  city,  he  would  make  this  proclamation  : 
""What  mean  ye,  fellow-citizens,  to  he  so  anxious 

after  wealth,  hut  so  indifferent  to  your  children's 
education?    It  is  like  being  solicitous  about  the 

shoe,  hut  neglecting  entirely  the  foot  that  is  to 
wear  it  !" 

We  would  reiterate  that  proclamation  wi  this 
of  Buperior  intelligence.  To  the  pious  parent 
there  i->  a  pleasure  in  training  the  young  and  ten- 
der heart  for  God.  What  a  beautiful  tribute  did 
Thompson  yield  to  this  pleasure  in  the  following 
JiiK 

"  Delightful  task  !  to  rear  the  tender  thought, 
To  teaoh  tin-  young  idea  li"\v,  to  shoot, 
To  jM.ur  the  fiv.-li  instruction  o'er  the  mind, 
To  breathe  enlivening  spirit,  and  to  fix 
Tin-  generous  purpose  in  the  glowing  breast!" 

But  home-education,  at  the  present  day,  is  as 


HOME-EDUCATION. 


199 


much  abused  as  it  is  neglected.  The  criminality 
of  the  former  is  perhaps  greater  than  that  of  the 
latter.  This  may  have  more  reference  to  the  fe- 
male than  to  the  male  portion  of  the  family. 
The  abuse  here  consists  of  the  want  of  a  training 
up  to  wisdom.  We  see  this  in  what  is  called  the 
fashionable,  instead  of  the  Christian,  education, 
received  at  some  of  our  fashionable  boarding 
schools.  Here  the  child  is  sent  with  no  home- 
training  whatever,  to  be  trained  up  a  fashionable 
doll,  fit  to  be  played  with  and  dandled  upon  the 
arms  of  a  whining  and  heartless  society,  with  no 
preparation  for  companionship  in  life,  destitute 
of  substantial  character,  with  undoctrinated  feel- 
ings of  aversion  to  religion,  fit  only  for  a  puppet 
show  in  some  gay  and  thoughtless  circle  ;  kneel- 
ing before  fashion  as  her  God,  and  giving  her 
hafid  in  marriage  only  to  a  golden  and  a  gilded 
calf. 

According  to  this  abuse  of  home-education,  "  a 
young  maiden  is  kept  in  the  nursery  and  the 
school  room,  like  a  ship  on  the  stocks,  while  she 
is  furbished  with  abundance  of  showy  accom- 
plishments, and  is  launched  like  the  ship,  look- 
ing taut  and  trim,  but  empty  of  everything 
that  can  make  her  useful."  Thus  one  great 
abuse  of  home-education  is  to  substitute  the 
boarding  school  for  home-culture, — to  send  our 
children  to  such  school  at  an  age  when  they 
should  be  trained  by  and  live  under  the  direct 
influence  of  the  parent.  This  generally  ends 
in  initiated  profligacy,  and  alienation  from  home, 


200  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

■while  at  best  but  a  dimce  after  his  course  of  train* 
iiiLf  is  ended. 

"  "Would  you  your  son  should  bo  a  sot  and  a  dunce, 
Lascivious,  headstrong,  or  all  those  at  once? 
Train  him  in  public  with  :  mob  ofboys, 
Childish  in  mischief  only  and  in  noise." 

Too  often  is  it  the  case  that  the  artifices  and 
refinements  of  our  fashionable  boarding  schools, 
have  a  most  withering  Influence  upon  body,  mind 
and  soul,  enfeebling  and  distorting  the  body,  pro- 
ducing depraved  stomachs,  whimsical  nerves,  pee- 
vish tempers,  indolent  minds,  and  depraved  mor- 
als. They  become  but  wrecks  of  what  they  were 
when  they  first  entered  the  school.  This  has 
been  called  "  the  stiff  and  starched  system  of 
muslin  education,"  and  is  the  nursery  of  pale, 
sickly,  listless,  peevish  children. 

But  this  is  not  the  only  abuse  of  home-educa- 
tion. Even  when  the  training  is  begun  at  home, 
the  very  idea  of  education  is  often  abused,  be- 
cause inefficient,  destitute  of  true  moral  elements, 
and  partial  both  as  to  the  mode  and  as  to  the  sub- 
stance of  it.  The  true  resources  of  life  are  not 
developed;  there  is  no  instruction  given  in  the 
principles  and  conditions  of  temporal  and  eternal 
well-being;  there  is  no  discipline  of  the  mind, 
or  h<"ly  or  morals.  But  the  great  idea  and  aim 
of  education  with  many  parents  now,  is  to. teach 
the  child  to  lead  and  write  and  cipher  as  a  means 
of  making  money  and  getting  along  in  this  world, 
— not,  of  course,  to  prevent  them  from  cheating 


HOME-EDUCATION. 


201 


others,  but  others  from  cheating  them.  All  is 
prostituted  to  money  and  business.  Character 
and  happiness  are  left  out  of  view.  What  have 
our  schools  now  to  do  with  the  propensities,  ap- 
petites, temperaments,  habits  and  character  of 
the  pupils  ?  And  how  are  the  parents  who  send 
their  children  to  school  to  have  them  trained  up 
with  reference  to  these  !  All  that  is  now  looked 
at,  is"  that  learning  which  will  fit  the  child  for 
business.  As  a  consequence  most  of  our  schools 
are  a  disgrace  to  the  very  name  of  education. 
More  evil  actually  results  from  them  than  good. 
The  mind  and  heart  are  injured, — the  one  but 
half  trained;  the  other  corrupted.  Mental  and 
moral  training  are  divorced ;  hence  one-sided, 
and  the  very  end  of  education  defeated.  The 
child  has  no  incentive  to  a  virtuous  and  a  noble 
life,  and  sinks  down  to  the  groveling  drudgery 
of  money-making.  It  is  educated  for  nature,  but 
not  for  God, — for  this,  but  not  for  the  next  life. 

If  we  would  not  abuse  home-education  \M  must 
not  separate  the  moral  from  the  mental, — the  sec- 
ular from  the  religious;  for  in  doing  so,  we  ex- 
pose the  child  to  rationalism  and  infidelity  on  the 
one  hand,  and  to  superstition  and  spiritualism  on 
the  other.  This  course  is  generally  taken  by  par- 
ents when  they  educate  their  children  for  mere 
worldly  utility  and  fashion,  when  they  have  not 
the  welfare  of  the  soul  in  view,  and  look  only  to 
the  advantage  of  the  body. 

The  duty  then  of  Christian  parents  to  give 
their  children  a  true  home-education  may  be  seen 
*9 


202  THE   CIIKISTIAN    BOMB. 

from  the  consequences  of  its  neglect  and  abuse  OB 
the  one  hand,  and  from  its  value  and  importance 
on  the  other.     They  should  famish  them  with  all 

^lic  necessary  means,  opportunities,  and  direc- 
tions, of  a  Christian  education.  Give  them  prop- 
er books.      "Without  1 ks,"  says  the    quaint 

Bartholin,  "God  is  rilent,  justice  dormant,  sci- 
ence at  a  stand,  philosophy  Lame,  Letters  dumb, 
and  all  things  involved  in  Cimmerian  darkness." 
Bring  them  up  to  the  habit  of  properly  reading 
and  studying  these  books.  "A  reading  people 
will  soon  become  a  thinking  people,  and  a  think- 
ing people  must  soon  become  a  great  people." 
Every  hook  you  furnish  your  child,  and  which  it 
reads  with  reflection  is  "like  a  cast  of  the  weav- 
er's shuttle,  adding  another  thread  to  the  inde- 
nt ructihle  web  of  existence."  It  will  be  worth 
more  t<>  him  than  all  your  hoarded  gold  and  sil- 
ver. Make  diligent  use  of  those  great  auxiliaries 
to  home-education,  which  the  church  lias  institut- 
ed. -i£ii  as  Sabbath  schools,  bible  classes  and 
catechisation. 

Eome-education    does    not    imply   a  system   of 

parental  training  isolated  from  the  educational 
ministrations  of  the  church;    hut  is  churchly  in 

ii-  -pint  and  in  all  its  parts,  and  should  in  all 
re-|M  , -is  l.e  connected  with  the  church.  Home- 
training  is  a  duty  yon  owe  to  the  church.     By 

virtue  <»t*  your  relation  to  her,  she  lias  the  au- 
thority i<>  demand  of  you  such  a  training  of  your 
child;  and  by  virtue  of  your  relation  to  the 
child,  he   has  a   right  to  such  an  education,  and 


HOME-EDUCATION. 


203 


can  demand  it  from  you.  It  stands  on  the  basis 
of  parental  duty  imposed  on  you  by  God  Him- 
self. It  is  a  prime  necessity.  It  is  your  chil- 
dren's birthright,  which  they  themselves  cannot 
sell  with  impunity,  for  the  pottage  of  gold  or  sil- 
ver or  pleasure  :  neither  can  you  neglect  or  abuse 
it  without  guilt  before  God. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  duty  which  you  cannot  shako 
off,  and  which  involves  both  for  you  and  for  your 
child,  the  most  momentous  consequences.  Chris- 
tian parents  !  be  faithful  to  this  duty.  Magnify 
your  office  as  a  teacher ;  be  faithful  to  your 
household  as  a  school.  Diligently  serve  your 
children  as  the  pupils  that  God  has  put  under 
your  care.  Educate  them  for  Him.  Teach  them 
to  "walk  by  faith,  not  by  sight."  Cultivate  in 
them  a  sense  of  the  unseen  world, — the  feeling 
of  the  actual  influence  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  tho 
guardianship  of  his  holy  angels,  and  of  the  com- 
munion of  saints.  Teach  them  how  to  live  and 
how  to  die ;  and  by  the  force  of  your  own  holy 
example  allure  them  to  the  cross,  and  lead  them 
onward  and  upward  in  the  living  way  of  eternal 
life.  You  are  encouraged  to  do  so  by  the  assur- 
ance of  God  that  "  when  they  grow  old  they  will 
not  depart  from  it." 


CHAPTETl  XVII. 

FAMILY    HABITS. 

"  Dost  thou  live,  man,  dost  thou  live,  or  only  breathe  and 

labor? 
Art  thou  free,  or  enslaved  to  a  routine,  the  daily  machinery 

of  habit? 
For  one  man  is  quickened  into  life,  -where  thousands  exist 

as  in  a  torpor, 
Feeding,  toiling,  sleeping,  an  insensate  weary  round  ; 
The  plough,  or  the  ledger,  or  the  trade,  with  animal  cares 

and  indolence, 
Make  the  mass  of  vital  years  a  heavy  lump  unleavened." 

MUCH  of  the  character,  usefulness  and  happi- 

of  home  depend  upon  home  habits.     No  one 

is  without  habits,  good  or  bad.     They  have  much 

to  do  with  OUT  welfare  hew  and  hereafter.     Hence 

tihe  importance  of  establishing  proper  habits. 

Babil  i-  a  Btate  »>f  any  tiling,  implying  some 
continuance  or  permanence.  It  may  be  formed 
by  nature  or  induced  by  extraneous  circumstances. 
It  is  n  Bottled  disposition  of  the  mind  or  body,  in- 
volving an  aptitude  for  the  performance  of  certain 


FAMILY   HABITS.  205 

actions,  acquired  by  custom  or  frequent  repeti- 
tion. There  are  habits  of  the  body,  of  the  mind, 
of  action ;  physical,  mental,  moral  and  religious 
habits.  All  these  are  included  in  the  term  home- 
habits. 

Habit  has  been  considered  an  "ultimate  fact," 
that  is,  one  of  those  qualities  of  life  which  arc 
found  to  exist,  and  beyond  which  no  investiga- 
tion can  be  made.  Habit  may  be  referred  to  the 
law  of  action  which  pervades,  all  vital  being.  Na- 
ture demands  the  repetition  of  vital  action,  and 
habit  arises  from  this  demand  and  from  the  man- 
ner in  which  it  is  supplied.  It  is  the  fruit  of 
the  operation  of  the  law  of  repetition  of  action 
in  all  life.  Hence  it  is,  that  habit  becomes  a 
part  of  our  very  existence,  and  that  the  well- 
being  and  happiness  of  our  existence  depend  so. 
much  upon  it. 

The  facility  of  action  depends  upon  habit.  In 
proportion  as  the  actions  of  life  become  a  habit, 
they  will  be  easily  performed,  and  performed  with 
pleasure.  The  capacity  to  establish  habits  is  the 
consequence  of  the  power  given  us  to  promote 
our  own  welfare.  This  capacity  is  designed  to 
bind  us  to  that  course  of  action  which  will  accojh- 
plish  the  purposes  of  our  existence.  If  rightly 
used,  it  is  the  guardian  of  our  happiness ;  but  if 
misused  it  will  be  our  certain  ruin.  It  will  do- 
light  and  fascinate  until  it  subjugate  our  will,  and 
lead  us  on,  as  in  the  case  of  the  drunkard  and  the 
gambler,  to  infamy  and  to  hell. 

Home-habits  are  easily  formed  and  established. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

Some  kind,  either  good  or  bad,  are  being  estab- 
lished everyday.  They  are  often  Beoretlyand  un- 
consciously formed.    All  the  principles  and  rules 

of  conduct  there  introduced  become  :ii  once  the 
nuclei  of  future  habits.  These  increase  in  pow- 
er and  supremacy  as  they  are  formed.  We  see 
this  in  the  use  of  tobacco  and  intoxicating  drink. 
These  are,  at  first,  disagreeable,  and  the  victim 
has  the  power  of  repelling  and  overcoming  them; 
but  soon  the  habit  is  formed,  when  their  use  be- 
comes pleasant,  and  he  is  made  a  willing  slave  to 
them. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  habits  of  indus- 
try, of  study,  of  frugality,  yea,  of  all  the  moral 
and  religious  acts  of  the  Christian.  It  is  easy  to 
form  such  habits  in  children.  Evil  habits  are 
more  easily  established,  because  we  are  naturally 
inclined  to  all  evil;  and  when  once  formed,  no 
parental  interposition  can  break  them  up.  Hence 
the  importance  of  an  early  training  up  to  good. 
If  parents  but  leave  their  children  to  their  own 
ways,  they  will  run  into  evil  habits;  for  sin  is  an 
epidemic.  Profanity  and  falsehood  and  all  other 
outrages  against  God  will  soon  become  the  con- 
trolling habits  of  their  lives.  But  when  taken 
early,  parents  have  complete  power  over  their 
oti'-pring.  It  is,  therefore,  a  gross  abuse  of  the 
Christian  home  when  parents  become  indifferent 
to  the  formation  of  habits.  It  is  their  duty  to 
crush  every  evil  habit  in  its  incipient  state. 

The  forming  of*  a  good  habit  may  not  at  first  be 
congenial  with  our  feelings.     It  may  be  irksome 


FAMILY    HABITS.  207 

But  if  we  persevere  in  it,  that  which  at  first  was 
painful  and  difficult  will  soon  be  a  source  of  en- 
joyment Thus  the  habit  of  family  prayer  may  at 
first  be  repulsive  even  to  the  Christian  parent;  a 
feeling  of  delicacy  and  the  sense  of  unworthiness 
may,  at  the  family  altar,  repress  the  feelings  of  en- 
joyment experienced  in  the  closet;  but  soon  the 
habit  of  this  devotion  will  be  formed,  when  it 
will  be  enjoyed  as  an  essential  part  of  home.  To 
abandon  it  would  be  like  breaking  up  the  ten(^|- 
est  ties  which  bind  the  members  together.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  omission  of  a  duty. 
How  easily  can  the  Christian  form  the  habit  of 
omitting  family  prayer  or  any  other  duty!  Every 
such  omission  but  forms  and  increases  the  habit, 
until  it  gains  an  ascendancy  over  our  sense  of 
duty,  and  at  last  exhibits  its  sovereign  power  in 
our  total  abandonment  of  the  duty.  Each  omis- 
sion has  the  power  of  reproducing  itself  in  other 
and  more  frequent  omissions.  In  this  way  Chris- 
tian homes  insensibly  become  unfaithful  to  their 
high  vocation,  and  degenerate  finally  into  com- 
plete apathy  and  estrangement  from  God.  That 
indulgence  which  the  misguided  sympathy  of  too 
many  parents  prompts  to,  and  which  docs  away 
with  all  parental  restraint,  is  the  cause  of  children 
coming  under  the  curse  of  evil  habits.  In  this 
way  parents  often  contribute  to  the  temporal  and 
eternal  ruin  of  their  offspring.  This  indulgence 
is  no  evidence  of  tender  love,  but  of  parental  in- 
fatuation. It  shows  a  blind  and  unholy  love, — a 
love  which  owns  no  law,  which  is  governed  by  no 


208 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


sense  of  duty,  and  which  excludes  all  discipline; 
and  hence  unlike  the  love  of  God,  who  "chas- 
tiseth  every  one  whom  He  loveth  and  receiveth." 

The  force  and  influence  of  home-habits  will 
teach  us  the  importance  of  establishing  such  only 
as  receive  the  sanction  of  God.  Habits,  as  we 
have  seen,  are  much  more  easily  formed  than 
broken.  When  once  established  they  enslave  us 
to  them,  and  subject  our  character  to  their  iron 
despotism.  They  become  the  channel  through 
which  our  life  flows.  The  stream  of  our  exist- 
ence first  forms  the  channel,  and  then  the  chan- 
nel rules,  guides  and  controls  the  current  of  the 
stream.  The  deeper  the  channel  is  wrought,  the 
greater  is  its  moulding  and  controlling  influence 
over  the  stream.  Thus  our  habits  become  our 
masters,  and  are  the  irrevocable  rulers  of  our  life. 
This  is  true  of  good  as  well  as  of  bad  habits.  "\Ve 
come  into  voluntary  subjection  to  them,  until  we 
shrink  from  the  first  proposal  to  depart  from  them. 

"Habit,"  says  the  Rev.  C.  C.  Colton,  "will  rec- 
oncile us  to  even  thing  but  change,  and  even  to 
change,  if  it  recur  not  too  quickly.  Milton,  there- 
fore, makes  his  hell  an  ice-house,  as  well  as  an 
oven,  and  freezes  his  devils  at  one  period,  but 
bakes  them  at  another.  The  late  Sir  George 
Staunton  informed  me,  that  he  had  visited  a 
man  in  India,  who  had  committed  a  murder, 
and  in  older  not  only  to  save  his  life,  but  what 
was  of  much  more  consequence,  his  caste,  he  sub- 
mitted to  the  penalty  imposed;  this  was,  that  he 
should  sleep  for  seven  years  on  a  bedstead,  with- 


FAMILY   HABITS. 


209 


out  any  mattress,  the  whole  surface  of  which  was 
studded  with  points  of  iron  resembling  nails,  hut 
not  so  sharp  as  to  penetrate  the  flesh.  Sir  George 
saw  him  in  the  fifth  year  of  his  probation,  and  his 
skin  then  was  like  the  hide  of  a  rhinoceros,  but 
more  callous.  At  that  time,  however,  he  could 
sleep  comfortably  on  his  bed  of  thorns,  and  re- 
marked that  at  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  his 
sentence,  he  should  most  probably  continue  that 
system  from  choice,  which  he  had  been  obliged*  to 
adopt  from  necessity." 

This  illustrates  the  force  of  established  habit, 
and  the  pliability  of  our  nature  in  yielding  a  vol- 
untary subjection  to  it.  What  is  at  first  involun- 
tary, painful,  and  a  self-denial  to  us,  will,  when  it 
passes  into  a  habit,  become  agreeable,  because  the 
habit  bends  our  nature  to  it,  chains  us  down  to  it, 
infatuates  the  will,  and  thus  becomes,  as  it  were, 
a  second  nature.  If  so,  it  is  very  plain  that  our 
habits  are  either  a  blessing  or  a  curse.  "When 
good,  they  are  a  safeguard  against  evil,  give  sta- 
bility to  our  character,  and  are  the  law  of  perse- 
verance in  well-doing.  Such  habits  in  the  Chris- 
tian home  form  an  irresistible  bulwark  against  the 
intrusions  of  temptation  and  iniquity.  But  when 
they  are  bad,  they  chain  us  to  evil,  and  impel  us 
onward  and  downward  to  ruin.  Hence  from  his 
habits  we  can  easily  estimate  the  merit  or  demerit 
of  a  person,  know  all  Lis  weak  points  and  idiosyn- 
crasies, and  what  will  be  the  probable  termination 
of  his  existence. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  the  habits  of  a  fam- 


210 


THi:    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


ily.  They  enter  into  its  very  constitution,  rule 
and  direct  all  its  activities  and  interests.  They 
cling  to  each  member  with  more  than  magic  pow- 
er, and  become  interwoven  with  liis  very  being; 
and  by  them  we  may  easily  ascertain  the  moral 
and  spiritual  strength  of  that  family;  we  can  tell 
whether  the  parents  are  faithful  to  their  mission, 
and  whether  its  members  will  he  likely  to  pass 
over  from  the  home  of  their  childhood  to  the 
church  of  Christ.  Who  has  not  felt  this  power 
of  hahit  ?  Who  has  not  wept  over  some  habits 
which  haunt  him  like  an  evil  spirit;  and  rejoiced 
over  others  as  a  safeguard  from  sin  and  a  propel- 
lor  to  good?  Is  it  not,  therefore,  a  matter  of  mo- 
mentous interest  to  the  Christian  home,  that  it 
establish  habits  of  the  right  kind  and  quality? 

It  should  never  be  forgotten  by  Christian  par- 
ents, and  they  cannot  he  too  careful  to  impress  it 
upon  their  children,  thai  hahit  engenders  hahit, — 
has  the  power  of  reproducing  itself,  and  begetting 
habits  of  its  own  kind,  increasing;  according  to 
the  laws  of  growth,  as  it  is  thus  reproduced.    A 

hahit,  in  one  member  of  a  family  may  produce  a 
like  lial.it  in  all  the  oilier  members.  The  habits 
of  the  husband  may  he  engendered  in  the  wife, 
and  those  of  the  parents,  in  their  children.  If 
so,  then  are  we  not  responsible  for  our  habits? 
And  shall  any  other  kind  save  Christian  hahits, 
he  found  in  the  Christian  home?  These  we  can- 
not give  in  detail.  It  is  plain  that  those  hahits 
only  are  Christian,  which  receive  tho  sanction  of 
God's  Word  and   Spirit,  and  find  a  response  in 


FAMILY   HABITS.  211 

the  Christian  faith  and  conscience.  Here,  for  in- 
stance, is  a  habit  being  formed, — habit  of  thought: 
is  it  pure  ?  Here  is  a  habit  of  conversation  :  is  it 
holy  ?  Here  is  a  habit  of  action :  is  it  godly  ? 
And  if  not,  it  does  not  belong  to.  the  Christian 
home. 

See,  then,  ye  members  of  the  Christian  home, 
to  the  habits  you  are  forming.  Form  the  habit 
of  "doing  all  things  decently  and  in  order."  Let 
the  work  and  duties  of  each  day  be  done  accord- 
ing to  method.  This  is  essential  to  success  in  your 
pursuits  and  aims.  "Without  this,  your  Christian 
life  may  be  blustering  and  stormy,  but  3-011  will 
accomplish  little,  and  will  be  as  unstable  as  water. 
One  duty  will  interfere  with  another.  You  may 
have  family  prayer  and  instruction  to-day,  but 
something  will'  prevent  it  to-morrow.  Establish 
the  habit  of  Christian  industry.  Be  diligent;  not 
slothful  in  business.  Industry  must  be  the  price 
of  all  you  obtain.  You  must  be  instant  in  sea- 
son. The  Christian  home  cannot  be  an  indolent, 
idle  home.  Whatsoever  thy  hand  findeth  to  do, 
do  it  with  all  thy  might.     Press  forward. 

It  is  said  of  Rutherford  that  "s^ch  was  his  un- 
wearied assiduity  and  diligence,  that  he  seemed 
to  pray  constantly,  to  preach  constantly,  to  cate- 
chise constantly,  and  to  visit  the  sick,  exhorting 
from  house  to  house,  to  teach  as  much  in  the 
schools,  and  spend  as  much  time  with  the  stu- 
dents, in  fitting  them  for  the  ministry,  as  if  he 
had  hem  sequestered  from  all  the  world,  and  yet 
withal,  to  write  as  mueh  as  if  he  had  been  con- 


212  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

staidly  shut  up  in  his  study."  Bach  should  be 
the  industry  tit"  each  Christian  home.  Without 
it,  temptation  will  besel  the  members.  "A  busy 
man  is  troubled  av i 1 1 1  but  one  devil,  but  the  idle 
man  with  a  thousand." 

Establish  the  habit  also  of  perseverance  in  well- 
doing. "Be  steadfast,  immovable,  always  abound- 
ing in  the  work  of  the  Lord."  "Be  not  weary 
in  well-doing."  Lot  the  strata  of  your  home  be 
made  up  of  the  immovable  Rook.  He  only  that 
continueth  unto  the  end  shall  be  saved.  Having 
done  all,  stand  !  Let  your  motto  be,  Pir.<>  >;  r- 
ando  viruses.  Form  the  habit  of  contentment  with 
your  home  and  condition  in  life.  "Godliness 
with  contentment  is  great  gain."  If  your  home 
is  humble,  and  not  adorned  with  the  embellish- 
ments and  luxuries  of  Life,  yet  it  may  be  holy,  and 
hence, happy.  Avoid  all  castle-building.  Do  not 
fancy  a  better  home,  and  fall  out  with  the  one 
yon  enjoy.  Never  permil  the  flimsy  creations  of 
a  distorted  imagination  to  gain  an  ascendancy 
over  your  reason  and  faith.  Live  above  all  sen- 
timentalism  and  day-dreaming;  and  in  all  the  feel- 
ings and  conduct  of  your  household,  submit  to  the 
guidance  of  a  superintending  Providence,  walking 
by  faith  and  not  by  Bight,  assured  that  your  pres- 
ent home  is  but  probationary  and  preparatory  to 
a  better  home  in  heaven. 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

HOME-GOVERNMENT. 


"  Alas  I  for  a  thousand  fathers,  whose  indulgent  sloth 

Hath  emptied  the  vial  of  confusion  over  a  thousand  homes ; 

Alas  !  for  the  palaces  and  hovels,  that  might  have  been  nurs- 
eries for  heaven, 

By  hot  intestine  broils  blighted  into  schools  for  hell ; 

None  knoweth  his  place,  yet  all  refuse  to  serve, 

None  weareth  the  crown,  yet  all  usurp  the  scepter ; 

The  mother,  heart-stricken  years  agone,  hath  dropped  into  an 
early  grave ; 

The  silent  sisters  long  to  leave  a  home  they  cannot  love ; 

The  brothers,  casting  off  restraint,  follow  their  wayward 
wills." 

IIome  is  a  little  commonwealth  jointly  gov- 
erned by  the  parents.  It  involves  law.  The 
mutual  relation  of  parent  and  child  implies  au- 
thority on  the  one  hand,  and  obedience  on  the 
other.  This  is  the  principle  of  all  government. 
Home  is  the  first  form  of  society.  As  such  it 
must  have  a  government.  Its  institution  implies 
the  prerogatives  of  the  parent  and  the  subordina- 


214 


THE    CIMU.-TIAN    SOME. 


tion  of  the  child.     Withoul  this  there  would  be 
no  order,  no  harmony,  no  training  for  the  Btate  pr 

the  chureh ;  for — 

"Society  is  a  chain  of  obligations,  and  its  links  support  each 

other ; 
The  branch  cannot  but  wither  that  is  cut  from  the  parent 

vine." 
The  relation  of  the  parent  to  the  child  Is  that  of 
a  superior  to  an  inferior.  The  right  <>f  the  par- 
ent is  to  command;  the  duty  of  the  child  is  to 
obey.  Hence  it  is  the  relation  of  authority  to 
subordination.  This  relation  includes  the  princi- 
ples of  home-government.  The  parent  is  not  the 
author  of  his  authority.  It  is  delegated  to  him. 
Neither  can  he  make  arbitrary  laws  for  home; 
these  must  be  the  laws  of  God.  It  is  as  mnch 
the  duty  of  the  parent  to  rule  as  it  is  for  the 
child  to  be  ruled. 

The  principle  of  home-government  is  love, — 
ruling  and  obeying  according  to  law.  These 
are  exercised,  as  il  were,  by  the  instinct  of  natu- 
ral affection  as  taken  up  and  refined  by  the  Chris- 
tian life  and  faith.  This  government  implies  reci- 
procity of  right, — the  right  of  the  parent  to  gov- 
ern and  the  right  of  the  child  to  he  governed.  It 
is  similar  in  its  fundamentals  to  the  government  of 
the  Btate  and  church.  It  involves  the  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive  functions;  its  elements  are 
law,  authority,  obedience,  and  penalties.  The  ba- 
sis of  its  laws  is  the  "Word  of  God.  We  may  con- 
sider the  whole  subject  under  two  general  heads, 
viz.,  parental  authority,  and  filial  obedience. 


HOME-GOVERNMENT.  215 

1.  Parental  authority  is  threefold,  legislative, 
judicial  and  executive.  The  two  latter  we  shall 
more  fully  consider  under  the  head  of  home-dis- 
cipline. The  legislative  authority  of  the  parent 
is  confined  to  the  development  of  God's  laws  for 
the  Christian  home.  He  cannot  enact  arbitrary 
laws.  His  authority  is  founded  on  his  relation 
to  his  children  as  the  author  of  their  being  ;  "  yet 
it  does  not  admit,"  says  Schlegel,  "of  being  set 
forth  and  comprised  in  any  exact  and  positive 
formularies."  It  docs  not,  as  in  the  old  Roman 
law,  concede  to  the  parent  the  power  over  the  life 
of  the  child.  This  would  not  only  violate  the  law 
of  natural  affection,  hut  would  he  an  amalgama- 
tion of  the  family  and  state.  Neither  is  the  pa- 
rental authority  merely  conventional,  given  to  the 
parent  by  the  state  as  a  policy.  It  is  no  civij  or 
political  investiture,  making  the  parent  a  dele- 
gated civil  ruler;  but  comes  from  God  as  an  in- 
alienable right,  and  independent,  as  such,  of  the 
state.  It  does  not,  therefore,  rest  upon  civil  legis- 
lation, but  has  its  foundation  in  human  nature  and 
the  revealed  law  of  God;  neither  can  the  state 
legislate  upon  it,  except  in  cases  where  its  exer- 
cise becomes  an  infringement  upon  the  preroga- 
tives of  the  state  itself. 

Parents  are  magistrates  under  God,  and,  as  His 
stewards,  cannot  abdicate  their  authority,  nor  del- 
egate it  to  another.  Neither  can  they  be  tyrants 
in  the  exercise  of  it.  God  has  given  to  them  the 
principles  of  home-legislation,  the  standard  of  ju- 
dicial authority,  and  the  rules  of  their  executive 


21G  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

power.  God  gives  the  law.  The  parent  is  only 
deputy  governor,  —  steward,  "hound  to  be  faith- 
ful." Hence  the  obligation  of  the  child  to  obey 
the  steward  is  as  great  as  that  to  obey  the  Master. 
"  Where  the  principal  is  silent,  take  heed  that 
thou  despise  not  the  deputy." 

Here,  then,  we  have  the  extent  of  the  parent's 
authority,  and  the  spirit  and  manner  in  which  it 
should  be  exercised.  His  power  is  grafted  on  the 
strength  of  another,  and  should  not  extend  beyond 
it.  Its  exercise  should  not  run  into  despotism  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  into  indifterentism  on  the  other. 
According  to  the  vagaries  of  some  religious  sen- 
timentalists and  fanatics,  it  is  supposed  that  rc- 
11  g ion  supersedes  the  necessity  of  parental  gov- 
ernment. They  think  that  such  authority  runs 
counter. to  the  spirit  and  requisitions  of  the  gos- 
pel. But  this  is  asserted  in  the  broad  face  of 
Cod's  Word.  The  promptings  of  such  senti- 
mentalism  are  to  permit  children  t<>  do  as  they 
please,  and  to  bring  them  up  under  the  influence 
of  domestic  libertinism.  Honor  thy  father  and 
thy  mother,  is  a  command  which  explodes  such 
a  gaudy  theory;  and  he  who  does  not  obey  it,  bru- 
talizes  human  nature, dishonors  God,  subverts  the 
principles  of  constitutional  society,  throws  off  al- 
legiance to  the  prerogatives  of  a  divinely  consti- 
tuted superior,  and  overthrows  both  church  and 
state.  Eence  the  severe  penalties  attached,  in  the 
Mosaic  law,  to  disobedience  of  parental  authority, 
"lie  that  curseth  his  father  or  mother,  shall  surely 
be  put  to  death."     "  The  eye  that  mocketh  at  his 


HOME-GOVERNMENT.  217 

father,  and  despisetli  to  obey  his  mother,  the  ra- 
vens of  the  valley  shall  pick  it  out,  and  the  young 
eagles  shall*  eat  it."  And  hence  also  that  affec- 
tionate obedience  which  Joseph  yielded  to  his 
aged  father,  and  that  profound  veneration  with 
which  he  kneeled  before  him  to  receive  his  dying 
blessing. 

2.  Filial  obedience  ;s  the  correlative  of  pa- 
rental authority.  If  parents  have  authority,  chil- 
dren must  yield  obedience  to  it.  This  is  not 
only  necessary  to  home-government,  but  also  to 
the  proper  formation  of  the  character  of  the  child. 
It  must  be  trained  up  under  law  and  authority  to 
prepare  it  for  citizenship  in  the  state.  This  must 
be  the  obedience  of  confidence  and  love.  It  does 
not  imply  the  subordination  of  the  slave. 

As  the  father's  authority  is  not  that  of  the  des- 
pot, so  the  obedience  of  the  child  is  not  that  of 
the  servile,  trembling  subject.  It  is  not  unnatu- 
ral,— no  infringement  upon  the  rights  and  liber- 
ties of  the  child.  His  subordination  to  the  par- 
ent is  the  law  of  his  liberty.  lie  is  not  free  with- 
out it.  The  home  in  which  filial  obedience  is  no\, 
yielded  to  parental  authority  is  "a  marvel  of  per- 
mitted chaos,"  and  will  soon  become  desolate,  a 
scene  of  anarchy  and  strife.  The  members  live 
in  a  state  of  lawlessness,  destitute  of  reciprocated 
affection, — the  parent  unhonored,  the  father  and 
mother  despised  and  cursed,  and  the  child  un- 
trained, uncared  for,  lawless,  and  unlit  for  the 
state  or  the  church. 

If,  therefore,  God  has  constituted  governmental 
10 


218  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

relations  in  the  Christian  home,  and  invested  the 
parent  with  authority  over  his  children,  who  will 
deny  the  coordinate  obligations  of  the  child  to 
yield  reverence,  submission  and  gratitude  to  the 
parent?  "Children,  obey  your  parents  in  all 
things;. for  this  is  well  pleasing  unto  the  Lord." 

This  is  called  the  first  commandment  with 
promise.  It  is  one  of  promise  both  to  the  par- 
ent and  the  child.  Children  arc  bound  to  obey 
their  parents  in  all  things,  that  is,  in  all  things 
lawful  and  in  accordance  with  the  revealed  will 
of  God.  The  child  is  not  hound  to  obey  the  par- 
ent's command  to  sin, — to  lie,  steal,  or  neglect  the 
means  of  grace;  because  these  arc  express  viola- 
lions  of  God's  law;  and  in  such  instances  the 
authority  of  God  supersedes  that  of  the  parent. 
Obey  God  rather  than  man. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  obligation  of  the 
ehilil  is,  1m  obey  the  parent  in  all  things  lawful 
ami  (  'hi-istian.     AV  here  this  is  not  done  the  ( Ihris- 

tiau  home  becomes  a  curse.  What  an  evil  is  a 
refractory  child!  How  often  does  the  parental  eye 
weep  in  bitterness  over  such  a  child!  How- oft  en 
have  such  children  brought  their  parents  down 
in  sorrow  to  the  grave!  Let  them  think  of  this. 
Let  parents  think  of  this  before  it  is  too  late. 
Let  them  think  of  the  fearful  criminality  which 
is  attached  to  parental  indulgence  and  filial  diso- 
bedience. 

We  may  neglect  and  abuse  the  home-govern- 
ment in  two  ways,  either  by  over-indulgence,  or 
by  the  iron  rod  of  tyranny.     When  we  make  it 


HOME-GOVERNMENT.  219 

lax  in  its  restraints  and  requisitions,  it  becomes 
merely  nominal,  and  its  laws  are  never  enforced 
and  obeyed.  Often  parents  voluntarily  relinquish 
their  right  and  duty  to  rule  their  household;  and 
as  a  consequence,  their  children  abandon  the  duty 
of  obedience,  and  grow  up  in  a  lawless  state ;  or  if 
the}-  do  command,  they  never  execute  their  com- 
mands, but  leave  all  to  the  discretion  of  their  chil- 
dren. They  violate  their  laws  with  impunity,  un- 
til all  influence  over  them  is  lost,  and  the  child 
becomes  master  of  the  parent.  The  self-will  of 
the  former  takes  the  place  of  the  authority  of  the 
latter,  until  at  last  the  home-government  becomes 
a  complete  farce  and  mockery.  Such  parents  are 
always  making  laws  and  giving  commands ;  but 
never  enforce  them  ;  they  complain  that  they  can- 
not get  their  children  to  obey  them  ;  and  this  can- 
not is  but  the  utterance  and  exponent  of  their  tin- 
faithfulness  and  disgrace. 

The  opposite  abuse  of  home-government  is 
parental  despotism, — ruling  with  a  rod  of  iron, 
making  slaves  of  children,  acting  the  unfeeling 
and  heartless  tyrant  over  them,  assuming  towards 
them  attitudes  of  hard  task-masters,  and  making 
them  obey  from  motives  of  trembling,  fear  and 
dread. 

There  is  no  Christianity  in  all  this.  It  engen- 
ders in  them  the  spirit  of  a  slave ;  it  roots  out  all 
confidence  and  love ;  their  obedience  becomes  in- 
voluntary and  mechanical.  They  shrink  in  silent 
dread  from  the  presence  of  their  parents,  and  long 
for  the  time  when  they  can  escape  their  galling 


220  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

yoke.  The  parental  rod  destroys  the  filial  love 
and  confidence.  Hence  the  obedience  of  the  lat- 
ter i.s  servile;  and  home  loses  its  tender  affections 
and  sympathies,  and  becomes  to  them  a  work- 
house, a  confinement  ;  its  restrictions  are  a  yoke; 
its  interests  are  repulsive,  and  all  its  natural  affin- 
ities give  way  to  complete  alienation.  The  chil- 
dren of  such  homes,  when  grown  up,  are  the  most 
lawless  and  reckless,  ready  at  once  to  pass  over 
from  extreme  servitude  to  libertinism. 

The  government  of  the  Christian  home  lies  in  a 
medium  between  these  two  extremes.  It  is  mild, 
yet  decisive,  firm;  not  lawless,  yet  not  despotic; 
but  combines  in  proper  order  and  harmony,  the 
true  elements  of  parental  authority  and  filial  sub- 
ordination. Love  and  fear  harmonize;  the  child 
fears  because  he  loves;  and  is  prompted  to  obe- 
dience by  both.  "But  give  thy  son  his  way,  he 
will  hate  thee  and  seorn  thee  together.'' 

Christian  parents!  be  faithful  to  the  govern- 
ment of  your  household.  Like  Abraham,  com- 
mand your  household.  "Without  this,  your  chil- 
dren will  be  your  curse  and  the  curse  of  the  state. 
Wherever  they  go  they  will  become  the  standard- 
bearer  of  the  turbulent,  and  brandish  the  torch  of 
discord,  until  at  last,  perhaps,  they  will  die  in  a 
dungeon  or  upon  the  gibbet.  And  then  the  curse 
will  recoil  upon  you.  It  will  strike  deep  into  your 
hearts.  It  will  come  to  you  in  the  darkness  of  un- 
fulfilled promises  and  blighted  hopes  and  injured 
affections  and  desolated  homes  and  wounded  spir- 
its and  disgraced  names  and  infamous  memories  ! 


HOME-GOVERNMENT.  221 

And  you,  in  the  face  of  these,  will  go  down  with 
bleeding  sorrow  to  the  grave,  and  up  to  the  bar  of 
God  with  the  blood  of  3'our  children's  destruction 
upon  your  skirts,  its  voice  crying  uitto  you  from 
the  grave  of  infamy  and  from  the  world  of  eternal 
retribution.  You  will  then  see  the  folly  and  the 
fruits  of  your  diseased  affection  and  misguided  in- 
dulgence,— 

"A  kindness, — most  unkind,  that  hath  always  spared  the 

rod; 
A  weak  and  numbing  .indecision  in  the  mind  that  should  be 

master ; 
A  foolish  love,  pregnant  of  hate,  that  never  frowned. on  sin; 
A  moral  cowardice,  that  never  dared  command  1" 


CIIAPTER   XIX. 

HOME-DISCIPLINE. 

"In  ancient  days, 
There  dwelt  a  sage  called  Discipline, 
His  eye  was  meek,  and  a  smile 
Played  on  his  lips,  and  in  his  speech  was  heard 
Paternal  sweetness,  dignity,  and  love. 
The  occupation  dearest  to  his  heart 
Waa  to  encourage  goodness. 
If  e'er  it  chanced,  as  sometimes  chance  it  must, 
That  one,  among  so  many,  overleaped 
The  limits  of  control,  his  gentle  eye 
Grew  stern,  and  darted  a  severe  rehuke, 
His  frown  was  full  of  terror,  and  his  voice 
Shook  the  delinquent  with  such  fits  of  awe 
As  left  him  not,  till  penitence  had  won 
Lost  favor  back  again,  and  closed  the  breach." 

Discipline  involves  the  judicial  and  execu- 
tive functions  of  the  home-government.  It  is 
the  method  of  regulating  and  executing  the  prin- 
ciples and  practice  of  government.  It  includes 
the  rein   and   the   rod,  the  treatment  of  offences 


IIOME-DISCIPLINE.  223 

against  the  laws  of  home,  the  execution  of  the 
parental  authority  by  the  imposition  of  proper 
restraints  upon  the  child;  It  involves  a  reciproc- 
ity of  duty, — the  duty  of  the  parent  to  correct, 
and  the  duty  of  the  child  to  submit.  God  has 
given  this  discipline  ;  He  has  invested  the  parent 
with  power  to  execute  it,  and  imposed  upon  the 
child  the  obligation  to  live  submissively  under  it. 

All  must  admit  the  necessity  of  home-discipline. 
"It  must  needs  be  that  offense  come."  There  is 
a  corresponding  needs  be  in  the  proper  treatment 
of  these  offenses  when  they  do  come.  Law  im- 
plies penalties  ;  and  the  proper  character  and  exe- 
cution of  these  are  as  essential  to  the  true  object 
and  end  of  government  as  is  the  law  itself.  The 
former  would  be  powerless  without  the  latter. 
Through  the  agency  of  home-discipline  the  proper 
fear  and  love  of  the  child  are  developed  in  due 
proportion  and  brought  into  proper  relations  to 
each  other,  making  the  fear  filial  and  the  love 
reverential.  There  is,  therefore,  the  same  call  for 
discipline  in  the  family  as  there  is  in  the  state  and 
the  church.  It  is  the  condition  of  true  harmony 
between  the  parent  and  child.  "  The  child  that  is 
used  to  constraint,  feareth  not  more  than  he  loveth  ; 
but  give  thy  son  his  way,  he  will  hate  thee  and 
scorn  thee  together." 

It  is  necessary  because  God  commands  it ;  and 
He  commands  it  because  it  is  indispensable  to  the 
security  and  well-bring  of  tin-  child,  and,  we  might 
add,  of  the  state  and  the  church.  ""Withhold  not 
correction  from  the  child;  for  if  thou  beatest  him 


224  THE   CHRISTIAN    nOME. 

with  the  rod,  he.  shall  not  die.  Thou  shalt  heat 
him  with  the  rod,  and.  shall  deliver  1  lis  soul  from 
helL  He  that  Bpareth  his  rod  hateth  his  boh  ;  but 
he  that  loveth  him  chasteneth  him  betimeV" 
Cliildren  are  by  nature  depraved,  and  if  left  to 
themselves,  will  choose  evil  rather  than  good; 
hence,  as  foolishness  is  bound  up  in  the  heart  of 
a  child,  the  rod  of  correction  must  be  used  to 
drive  them  from  it.  He  must  be  restrained,  cor- 
rected, educated  under  law.  In  the  language  of 
Cowpcr — 

"  Plants  raised  with  tenderness  are  seldom  strong ; 
Man's  coltish  disposition  asks  the  thong  ; 
And  without  discipline,  the  favorite  child, 
Like  a  neglected  forester,  runs  wild." 

There  are  two  false  systems  of  home-discipline, 
viz.,  the  despotism  of  discipline,  or  discipline  from 
the  standpoint  of  law  without  love ;  and  the  lib- 
ertinism of  discipline,  or  discipline  from  the  stand- 
point of  love  without  law. 

Home-discipline  from  the  standpoint  of  law 
without  love,  involves  the  principle  of  parental 
despotism.  It  is  extreme  legal  severity,  and  con- 
sist- in  the  treatment  of  children  as  if  they  were 
brutes,  using  no  other  mode  of  correction  than 
that  of  direct  corporeal  punishment.  This  but 
hardens  them,  and  begets  a  roughness  of  nature 
and  spirit  like  the  discipline  under  which  they  are 
brought  up.  Many  parents  seek  to  justify  such 
mechanical  severity  by  the  saying  of  Solomon, 
"he  that  Bpareth  the  rod  spoileth  the  child."    But 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  225 

their  interpretation  of  this  does  not  show  the  wis- 
dom of  the  wise  man.  They  suppose  the  term 
rod,  must  mean  the  iron  rod  of  the  unfeeling  and 
unloving  despot.  Not  so  ;  God  has  a  rod  for  all 
His  children  ;  but  it  is  the  rod  of  a  compassionate 
Father,  and  docs  not  always  inflict  corporeal  pun- 
ishment. It  is  exercised  because  lie  loves  them, 
not  because  He  delights  in  revenge  and  in  their 
misery.  He  uses  it,  not  to  have  them  obey  Him 
from  fear  of  punishment,  not  to  force  them  into  a 
slavish  service,  and  to  cause  them  to  shrink  with 
trembling  awe  from  His  presence  ;  but  to  correct 
their  faults  by  drawing  them  to  Him  in  fond  em- 
brace,  in  grateful  penitence  and  hopeful  reforma- 
tion, under  the  deep  conviction  that  evciy  stroke 
of  His  rod  was  the  work  of  love,  forcing  from 
them  a  kiss  for  His  rod,  and  a  blessing  for  His 
hand,  the  utterance  of  a  sanction  for  His  deed, 
"It  was  good  for  me  that  I  was  afflicted  !" 

This  rod  is  very  different,  however,  from  that 
of  the  despot  beneath  whom  the  child  crouches 
with  trembling  dread,  and  under  the  influence  of 
whom  he  becomes,  like  the  down-trodden  subject, 
servile,  brutish  and  rebellious.  You  will  reap 
bitter  fruits  from  such  a  discipline,  which  is  but 
the  exponent  of  the  letter  of  the  law  without  its 
spirit,  and  which  has  nothing  for  the  child  but  the 
scowl  and  the  frown  and  the  cruel  lash.  You 
might  as  well  seek  to  "gather  grapes  from  thorns, 
or*  tigs  from  thistles,"  as  to  reap  from  it  a  true  ref- 
ormation and  religious  training.  Your  child  will 
be  trained  to  hate  the  law,  to  despise  authority, 
♦10 


22G 


THE    CHKIsTIAX    HUME. 


and  t<>  regard  his  obedience  as  a  compromise  of 
true  liberty.  He  will,  therefore,  seek  liberty  only 
in  the  usurpation  of  law  and  government.  He 
will  contemn  love,  because  where  it  should  have 
been  disinterested,  and  shown  in  itsgreatesl  ten- 
derness and  purity, — in  the  parent's  heart,  it  was 
abused  and  silenced. 

That  discipline,  therefore,  -winch  is  ever  magni- 
fying trifles,  finding  fault,  Bcolding  and  storming, 
and  threatening  and  whipping,  and  falling  upon 
the  child,  like  the  continual  dropping  of  rain  in  B 
winter  day,  casts  a  withering  gloom  over  home, 
makes  it  repulsive  to  the  child,  gives  to  the  parent 
a  forbidding  aspect,  until  the  children  become 
provoked  to  wrath,  and  regard  their  home  as  a 
prison,  their  life  as  a  Blavery,  and  long  for  the  time 
when  they  may  leave  borne  and  parents  forever. 
Such  discipline  makes  the  reign  of  the  parent  a 
reign  of  terror.  It  reminds  one  of  the  laws  of 
Draco,  written  in  blood.  It  produces  in  the  child 
a  broken  -pint,  a  reckless  desperation,,  a  hardened 
contumacy,  a  deep  and  sullen  melancholy,  a  men- 
ial and  moral  hardihood  which  prepares  him  for 
deeds  of  outrage  upon  law  and  humanity.  It  is 
unnatural,  revolting  to  human  nature,  to  beat  ami 
crush,  as  if  with  an  iron  rod,  the  tender  child  of  our 
heart-  and  hopes.  It  extinguishes  natural  affec- 
tion ;  ami  no  subsequent  kindness  can  rekindle  the 
flame.  The  child  becomes  forever  alienated,  and 
bears  the  curse  of  its  maltreatment  upon  its  char- 
acter ami  destiny.  "Ye  parents,  provoke  not  your 
childrcu  to  anger,  lest  they  should  be  discouraged." 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  227 

The  following  quaint  anecdote  is  a  good  com- 
mentary upon  such  discipline :  A  blacksmith 
brought  up  his  son,  to  whom  he  was  very  severe, 
to  his  own  trade.  The  urchin  was,  nevertheless, 
an  audacious  dog.  One  day  the  old  vulcan  was 
attempting  to  harden  a  cold  chisel  which  he  had 
made  of  foreign  steel,  but  could  not  succeed; 
"horsewhip  it,  hither,*'  exclaimed  the  youth,  "if 
that  will  not  harden  it.  nothing  will !" 

Nothing  justifies  such  cruel  discipline.  It  re- 
sults in  depravity  of  life.  The  most  notorious 
criminals  began  their  career  under  the  lash  of  pa- 
rental cruelty.  If  rods  and  stripes  and  cries  and 
tears  and  cruel  beating  are  the  first  lessons  of  life- 
we  are  to  learn,  then  we  shall  be  educated  in  as 
well  as  by  these.  The  Europeans  surpass  all  oth- 
er nations  in  cruelty  to  their  offspring.  The  Arab 
is  tender  to  his  children,  and  rules  them  by  kind- 
ness and  caresses.  He  restrains  them  by  the  cor- 
rections of  wisely  exerted  love.  Cruelty  docs  not 
become  the  Christian  home.  It  is  revolting  to 
i  parent  stand  with  a  rod  over  his  child,  to 
make  him  read  the  bible  or  say  his  prayers.  You 
cannot  whip  religion  into  a  child.  This  is  oppo- 
site to  humanity  and  religion. 

Home-discipline  from  the  standpoint  of  love 
without  law,  is  the  second  false  system  which  we 
have  mentioned,  and  involves  the  principle  of  pa- 
rental libertinism.  It  due*  not  consist  so  much 
in  the  vant  as  in  the  neglect  and  abuse  of  disci- 
pline. The  restraints  may  be  sufficient,  and  the 
threats  abundant,  but  they  are  never  executed. 


THE    CHKISIIAX    BOMB. 

Wheo  the  children  disobey,  the  parents  may 
flounder  and  Btorm,  loud  and  long,  but  all  ends  in 
words,  in  a  storm  of  passion  <>r  whining  com- 
plaint, and  the  child  is  thus  encouraged  to  repeat 
the  misconduct,  feeling  that  his  parents  have  no 
respect  for  their  word.  Such  a  home  becomes 
Bcolding,  but  not  an  orderly  home. 

"Discipline  at  length, 
O'erlooked  and  unemployed,  grew  rick  and  died, 
Then  study  languished,  emulation  slept, 
And  virtue  fled.     What  was  learned, 
If  alight  was  learned  In  childhood,  is  forjrot ; 
And  such  expense  as  pinches  parents  blue, 
And  mortifies  the  liberal  hand  of  love, 
I~  squandered  in  pursuit  of  idle  sports 
And  vicious  pleasures. 

Parents,  through  their  misguided  sympathy, 
often  connive  at  filial  disobedience.  Their  kind- 
is  most  unkind.  Their  parental  Ipve  issues 
forth  as  a  mere  hurst  of  feeling,  unguided  by 
either  reason  <>r  law.  Hence,  their  sentimental 
hearts  become  an  asylum  for  filial  delinquency  and 
criminality.  This  is  no  proof  of  love,  but  the  op- 
posite;  for  "he  thai  Bpareth  the  rod  hateth  his 
■on;  but  he  that  Love  b  him  chasteneth  him  bc- 
tiraes."  Love  will  thus  prompt  the  parent  to 
chasten  his  son  while  there  is  hope.  Eli  was  an 
example  of  extreme  parental  indulgence.  "His 
.-"ii-  made  themselves  vile,  and  he  restrained  them 
imt."  It  was  the  defect  also  id'  David's  discipline, 
and  the  fruit  of  this  defect  caused  him  to  cry  out 


HOME-DISCIPLINE. 


229 


in  bitter  anguish,  "  Oh  Absalom,  my  son,  my  son, 
would  to  God  I  had  died  for  thee !" 

That  parent  who  cannot  restrain  his  children, 
does  not  bear  rule  in  his  house,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence, cannot  bless  his  household.  That  parent- 
al tenderness  whieh  withholds  the  proper  re- 
straints of  discipline  from  an  erring  child,  is  most 
cruel  and  ruinous.  It  is  winking  at  his  wayward 
temper.  Ins  licentious  passions  and  growing  habits 
of  vice.  And  these,  in  their  terrible  maturity, 
will  recoil  upon  the  deluded  parent,  "biting  like 
a  serpent  and  stinging  like  an  adder."  Nothing 
is  more  ruinous  to  a  child  and  disastrous  to  the 
hopes  and  happiness  of  home,  than  such  relaxation 
of  discipline.  "A  child  left  to  himself  bringeth 
his  mother  to  shame."  How  many  mothers  have 
bitterly  experienced  this,  and  wept  bitter  tears 
over  the  memory  of  their  degraded  and  wretched 
offspring!  It  is  ruinous  to  the  parent.  He  will 
both  curse  and  despise  thee.  Your  unlawful  in- 
dulgence, therefore,  is  infanticide.  Your  cruel 
embraces  are  hugging  your  child  to  death.  The 
sentiment  of  love  should  never  crush  the  reasOD 
and  violate  the  laws  of  love.  Do  you  permit  your 
Bick  to  die  rather  than  to  inflict  the  pain  of  giving 
them  the  medicine  to  cure?  This  would  be  mad- 
Ami  yet  you  do  a  similar  deed  when  you 
Indulge  your  child  in  wickedness.  He  will  grow 
up  lawless,  headstrong,  rebellious:  and  these  may 
lead  him  on  to  poverty,  infamy,  crime  and  perdi- 
tion, ending  thus  in  total  shipwreck  of  character 
and  soul.     You  thus  make  for  society  bad  mem- 


230  Tin:  CHRISTIAN   SOME. 

.  drunkards,  blackguards,  paupers,  criminals; 
and  furnish  fuel  for  the  eternal  burnings.  And 
will  not  the  curse  rest  upon  yout 

It  i>  wonderful  i<>  what  an  extent  tlii-  extreme 
indulgence  prevails  at  1 1 1 « ■  present  day.  Many 
parents  Beem  Insensible  even  to  the  necessity  of 
any  discipline/and  think  it  is  an  infringement  up- 
on the  liberties  of  the  child.  Mistaken  parents! 
Such  views  are  opposed  to  the  laws  of  God  and 
man.  By  them  yon  sow  for  yourselves  and  chil- 
dren the  Beeds  of  a  future  retribution. 

Tims  we  Bee  that  there  are  two  dangerous  tx- 
tremes  or  false  systems  of  home-ffiscipline,  viz., 
the  exercise  of  parental  fondness  ami  sympathy 
without  parental  authority,  on  tin-  one  hand,  and 
the  exercise  of  parental  authority  without  proper 
Bympathy,  on  the  other.  Misguided  sympathy  and 
fondness  will  produce  filial  Libertinism;  and  des- 
potic authority  will  beget  filial  Bervility. 

True  ( Christian  home-discipline  lies  in  a  medium 
between  tin-.'.  It  involves  tin'  union  of  true  pa- 
rental sympathy  ami  authority,  of  proper  love  ami 
proper  law  ;  for  affection,  whop  not  united  to  au- 
thority  and   law,  degenerates    into   sentimental 

fondness;  ami  authority  ami  law,  when  not  teiu- 
I  with  love,  degenerate  into  brutal  tyranny, 
ami  produce  inward  servility  ami  outward  bond- 
The  parents  who  are.  in  discipline,  prompted 
by  the  first,  may  he  loved,  hut  will  not  be  respec- 
ted. Those  who  are  ruled  by  the  second,  may  ho 
dreaded,   hut    will    m»t    he    loved.      The   first   docs 

violence  to  law.  ami  ends  in  the  insubordination 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  231 

of  the  child  and  the  imbecility  of  the  parent. 
The  second  does  violence  to  love,  makes  duty  a 
task,  correction  a  corporeal  punishment,  the  child 
a  slave,  the  parent  a  despot,  and  ends  consequent- 
ly in  the  destruction  of  natural  affection.  Hence, 
in  home-discipline,  true  severity  and  true  sympa- 
thy should  unite  and  temper  each  other.  AYith- 
out  this  the  very  ends  proposed  will  be  frustrated. 

True  home-discipline  repudiates  the  legal  idea 
of  punishment  as  much  as  of  impunity.  It  lies  in 
a  medium  between  these,  and  involves  the  idea  of 
Christian  correction  or  chastisement.  We  should 
correct,  but  not  punish  our  children.  Correction 
is  not  the  mere  execution  of  legal  penalties  as 
such,  but  the  fruit  of  Christian  love  and  concern 
for  the  child.  It  does  not  mean  simple  corporeal 
chastisement,  but  moral  restraints.  The  impunity 
is  the  fruit  of  love  without  law ;  the  corporeal 
punishment  is  the  execution  of  law  without  love  ; 
Christian  correction  is  the  interposition  of  love 
acting  according  to  law  in  restraining  the  child. 
Hence,  true  discipline  is  the  correction  of  the  child 
by  the  love  of  the  parent,  according  to  the  laws 
of  home-govermnent. 

Abraham  instituted  in  his  household  a  model 
system  of  home-discipline.  "  I  know  him,"  says 
God,  "that  he  will  command  his  children  and  his 
household  idler  him,  and  they  shall  keep  the  ways 
of  the  Lord  to  do  justice  and  judgment."  He 
was  not  a  tyrant;  his  comrades  did  not  bear  the 
rough  sternness  of  a  despot,  neither  did  his  pow- 
er wear  the  scowl  of  vengeance.     But  these  boro 


Till:    CHKISTIAN    BOMB. 

the  firmness  and  decision  of  love  tempered  and 
directed  by  the  law  of  Christian  duty  and  respon- 
sibility. They  showed  his  station  as  a  father; 
they  wore  the  exponent  of  his  authority  as  :i  par- 
ent, whose  love  was  a  safeguard  against  tyranny 
on  the  one  hand,  and  whose  accountability  t<>  ( tod 
was  a  security  against  anarchy,  on  the  other. 
Bence,  his  children  respected  his  station,  vene- 
rated his  name,  appreciated  his  love,  confided  In 
Lis  sympathy,  and  yielded  a  voluntary  obedience 
to  his  commands;  for  they  discerned  in  them  the 
blessing;  and  when  offenses  came,  they  bent  In 
the  spirit  of  Loving  submission  and  pupilage,  un- 
der his  rod  of  correction,  and  kissed  it  as  the 
means  of  their  reformation  and  culture. 

Thus  doc-  home-discipline  involve  the  firmness 
of  parental  authority  united  with  the  mildness  of 
parental  love.  Love  should  hold  the  reins  and 
use  the  rod.  Thru  it  will  purify  and  elevate  nat- 
ural affection,  and  develop  in  the  child  a  Bense  of 
proper  feat,  without  either  disrespectful  familiar- 
ity or  mechanical  servitude. 

The  efficiency  of  home-discipline  depends  upon 

it-  early  introduction,  upon  the  decision  with 
which  it  is  administered,  upon  it-  adaptation  to 
the  n-.A  want-  of  the  child,  and  upon  the  manner 
in  which  it  i-  applied. 

It  should  he  commenced   in  due  season,  as  soon 

as  the  chihl  ••an  understand  its  meaning  and  ob- 
ject. The  child  should  he  made  to  understand 
that  he  Lives  under  authority  and  restraint.  This 
will  prepare  him  for  a  profitable  correction  when 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  233 

necessary.  The  great  fault  of  many  parents  is 
that  they  begin  too  late  to  correct  their  children^ 
and  leave  them  until  then  in  ignorance  of  its  na- 
ture and  intent.  Hence,  the  child  will  not  appre- 
ciate the  parent's  motive,  and  will  lack  that  plia- 
bility of  spirit  which  is  essential  to  reformation. 
"The  sceptre,"  says  James,  in  his  Family  Monitor, 
*'  should  be  seen  by  him  before  the  rod;  and  an 
early,  judicious  and  steady  exliil.il ion  of  the  for- 
mer, would  render  the  latter  almost  unnecessary. 
He  must  be  made  to  submit,  and  that  while 
young,  and  tlten  submission  will  become  a  habit; 
the  reins  must  be  felt  by  him  early,  and  he  will 
thus  learn  to  obey  them." 

Home-discipline  should  be  steady,  uniform,  con- 
sistent and  reasonable.  Both  parents  and  children 
should  be  guided  by  the  dictates  of  reason  and 
religion.  It  should  not  be  administered  by  the 
caprice  of  passion,  nor  received  in  the  spirit,  of 
insubordination.  It  should  be  prompted  by  a  pa- 
rent's heart,  and  inflicted  by  a  parent's  hand. 
Convince  the  recreant  child  that  you  correct  him 
from  motives  of  love,  and  for  his  own  good.  Let 
reason  and  love  be  at  the  bottom  of  every  chas- 
tisement; let  them  hold  the  reins  and  guide  the 
rod  ;  and  when  the  latter  is  used,  let  it  be  from 
necessity.  Lay  no  injunction  upon  your  child 
without  the  ensurance  of  a  compliance. 

Your  discipline  should  never  involve  impossi- 
bilities or  uncertainties ;  neither  should  you  per- 
mit your  child  to  sport  with  your  injunctions. 
Every  command  should  produce  cither  obedience 


23-4  THE  CHRISTIAN    BOMB. 

or  correction.  You  should  be  firm  in  the  inflic- 
tion of  a  threatened  chastisement,  and  faithful  in 
the  fulfilment  of  apromiseto  reward.  Many  par- 
ents are  always  Bcolding,  threatening  and  prom- 
ising, but  never  execute  and  fulfil.  As  a  conse- 
quence they  run  from  one  extreme  of  discipline 
to  another. 

In  home-discipline,  parents  sliould  act  harmoni- 
ously and  cooperate  with  each  other.  They  should 
be  of  one  mind  and  of  one  heart,  and  equally  hear 
the  burden.  The  one  should  not  oppose  the  dis- 
cipline which  the  other  is  administering.  This 
destroys  its  effect,  and  leaves  the  child  in  a  state 
of  indecision,  leading  to  prejudice  against  one  or 
the  other  of  the  parents.  It  too  often  happens 
that  parents  thus  take  opposite  sides, — the  father 
too  severe  perhaps,  and  the  mother  too  indulgent. 
Thus  divided,  their  house  must  fall.  Nothing  is 
more  ruinous  to  the  child  than  for  the  mother  to 
countered  by  soothing  opiates,  the  admonitions 
of  the  father.    Children  soon  see  this,  and  will  as 

soon  hate  their  lather.  When  one  parent  thus 
holds   the    reins   without    the    rod,  and   the   other 

uses  the  rod  without  the  reins,  the  very  ends  of 
discipline  are  frustrated.     Sometimes  the  child  is 

given  over  to  the  mother  exclusively  till  a  certain 
age,  when  the  father  begins  to  ;iet  without  the 
mot hei-.  This  is  wrong.  A  child  is  never  too 
young  to  he  ruled  by  the  father,  and  never  too 
old  to  come  under  the  softening  influence  of  the 
mother. 

Discipline  should  be  administered  with  impar- 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  235 

tiality.  Never  make  one  child  a  favorite.  Fa- 
voritism and  consequent  indulgence,  will  produce 
prejudice  against  the  other  children.  It  will  intro- 
duce dissension  among  them.  This  i3  unworthy 
the  Christian  parent  and  his  home.  The  history 
of  Jacob  and  Joseph,  as  regards  both  the  subject 
and  the  victim  of  parental  favoritism,  is  a  warning 
against  such  partiality.  It  produces,  pride,  envy, 
jealousy,  family  broils  and  strife,  in  which  even 
the  parents  take  a  part,  and  by  which  the  husband 
is  often  set  against  his  wife,  parents  against  chil- 
dren, and  children  against  each  other. 

Correction  is  an  essential  element  of  true  disci- 
pline. "The  rod  and  the  reproof  give  wisdom." 
There  are  two  things  in  correction, — the  reins  and 
the  whip,  or  the  command  and  the  chastisement. 
The  one  should  not  take  the  place  of  the  other. 
The  scepter  must  not  be  converted  into  a  whip. 
If  the  reins  are  properly  held  and  used,  the  whip 
need  scarcely  ever  be  required.  If  the  child  is 
timely  and  properly  trained,  commanded  and 
chided,  he  will  not  require  much  chastisement, 
— perhaps  no  corporeal  punishment.  It  is  better 
to  prevent  crimes  than  to  punish  them;  for  pre' 
vention  is  more  than  cure. 

Hence  the  first  thing  in  discipline  is  timely  and 
wholesome  command.  Guide  and  train  your  child 
properly,  and  you  need  seldom  resort  to  coercion. 
Training  and  leading  are  better  than  forcing.  By 
the  former  you  establish  a  habit  of  systematic  obe- 
dience which  will  soon  become  a  pleasure  to  the 
child.     By  the  latter  you  jade  and  vex  and  burden 


236 


TIIE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


him.  But  when  the  reins  will  not  do  alone,  then 
the  whip  must  be  resorted  to.  And  the  question 
at  once  arises,  what  kind  of  a  whip  ?  We  answer, 
not  such  as  you  use  to  your  horses  and  oxen  in  the 
team,  —  not  the  horse-whip.  Corporeal  punish- 
ment should  be  used  only  as  a  last  resort,  when 
all  other  corrections  have  failed,  when  the  child 
becomes  an  outlaw,  and  his  reprobate  heart  can  be 
reached  only  through  the  infliction  of  bodily  pain. 
As  a  general  thing  it  is  even  then  unavailing,  be- 
cause too  mechanical  to  produce  permanent  good, 
and  not  adapted  to  mental  and  moral  reformation. 

Sometimes,  however,  there  is  necessity  in  the 
use  of  this  rod.  "Every  child,"  says  Dr.  South, 
"  has  some  brute  in  it,  and  some  man  in  it,  and 
just  in  proportion  to  the  brute  we  must  whip  it." 
"When  thus  necessary  we  should  not  shrink  from 
this  kind  of  correction.  "  It  is  pusillanimity,  as 
well  as  folly,  to  shrink  from  the  crushing  of  the 
egg,  but  to  wait  composedly  for  the  hatching  of 
the  viper."  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  in  the  lan- 
guage of  Dr.  Bell,  "a  maximum  of  attainment 
tan  lie  made  only  bya  minimum  of  punishment." 

In  the  discipline  of  home,  whether  by  guid- 
ance or  by  forcing,  whether  by  the  rein  or  the 
rod,  much  depends  upon  the  manner  in  which  it 
is  administered.  It  should  always  be  adapted  to 
the  peculiar  character  and  offense  of  the  child. 
You  can  restrain  some  children  better  by  kind 
words  and  promises  than  by  rough  admonitions 
and  threats.  Study,  therefore,  the  peculiarities 
of  your  child,  and  prudently  apportion  the  cor- 


HOME-DISCIPLINE.  237 

rection,  to  the  offense.  If  there  are  sincere  pen- 
itence and  confession,  the  correction  should  be 
purely  moral.  Let  the  object  of  every  correc- 
tion be  to  produce  penitence  and  reformation  of 
heart  as  well  as  of  conduct,  and  a  hatred  of  the 
offense.  Always  execute  your  threats  and  fulfill 
your  promises  at  the  time  and  on  the  occasion 
designated.  Threaten  as  little  as  possible,  and  be 
not  hasty  in  your  threats.  Treat  your  children  as 
rational  and  moral  beings  : 

"  Be  obeyed  when  thou  commanclest,  but  command  not  often ; 
Spare  not,  if  thy  word  hath  passed  for  punishment ; 
Let  not  thy  child  see  thee  humbled,  nor  learn  to  think  thee 
false." 

Always  examine  the  offense  before  you  punish. 
See  whether  it  is  of  ignorance  or  not, — whether 
of  the  head  or  the  heart, — whether  intentional  or 
accidental.  Examine  his  motives  in  committing 
the  offense.  If  you  find  he  merits  correction,  be- 
fore you  inflict  it,  lay  before  him  the  nature  and 
enormity  of  the  offense,  wher#in  he  disobeyed,  the 
guilt  of  that  disobedience,  its  consequences,  and 
your  duty  to  correct  him  for  it. 

Never  correct  in  a  state  of  anger.  Some  cor- 
rect only  when  they  are  in  a  violent  passion. 
This  is  ruling  from  passion,  not  from  principle. 
It  is  like  administering  medicine  scalding  hot, 
which  rather  burns  than  cures.  Be  judicious  and 
kind  in  all  your  discipline  ;  otherwise  you  may 
engender  in  your  child  the  very  propensities  and 
improprieties  of  action  you  desire  to  eradicate. 


'238  THE  CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

A  mild  rebuke  in  the  season  of  calmness,* is  bet- 
ter than  a  rod  in  the  heat  of  passion.  Let  your 
children  know  and  see  that  all  your  discipline  is 
for  their  own  good, — to  arrest  them  from  danger 
and  ruin,  and  to  train  them  up  in  the  way  God 
would  have  them  go.  Let  your  words  and  deeds 
show  this  in  the  form  of  parental  kindness  and 
sympathy  and  solicitude.  This  will  do  more  than 
the  angry  look,  the  stormy  threat,  and  the  cruel 
lash. 

"By  kindness  the  wolf  and  the  zebra  become  docile  as  the 

spaniel  and  the  horse ; 
The  kite  feedeth  with  the  starling,  under  the  law  of  kindness ; 
That  law  shall  tame  the  fiercest,  bring  down  the  battlements 

•    of  pride, 
Cherish  the  weak,  control  the  strong,  and  win  the  fearful  spirit. 
Let  thy  carriage  be  the  gentleness  of  love,  not  the  stern  front 

of  tyranny." 


CHAPTER  XX. 

HOME-EXAMPLE. 

"Example  strikes 
All  human  hearts  !     A  bad  example  more ; 
More  still  a  father's  !" 

Example  lias  much  to  do  with  the  interests  of 
home.  It  plays  an  important  part  in  the  forma- 
tion of  character ;  and  its  influence  is  felt  more 
than  that  of  precept.  Our  object  in  this  chapter 
is  to  show  the  bearing  of  example  upon  the  well- 
being  of  the  Christian  home.  Example  may  be 
good  or  bad.  Its  power  arises  out  of  the  home- 
confidence  and  authority.  Children  possess  an 
imitative  disposition.  They  look  up  to  their  par- 
ents as  the  pattern  or  model  of  their  character, 
and  conclude  what  they  do  is  right  and  worthy  of 
their  imitation.  Hence  the  parental  example  may 
lead  the  child  to  happiness  or  to  ruin. 

"  Lo !   thou  art  a  landmark  on  a  hill;  thy  little  ones  copy 

thee  in  all  things. 
Show  me  a  child  undutiful,  I  shall  know  where  to  look  for  a 

foolish  father; 
But  how  can  that  son  reverence  an  example  he  dare  not  follow? 
ShoukThe  imitate  thee  in  thine  evil  V  his  sconi  is  thy  rwbuke." 


240  THE  CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

The  power  and  influence  of  the  home-example 
are  incalculable.  Example  is  teaching  by  action. 
By  it  the  child  inherits  the  spirit  and  character  of 
the  parent.  Such  is  its  influence  that  you  can  esti- 
mate the  parent  by  the  child.  Show  me  a  child, 
polite,  courteous,  refined,  moral  and  honorable  in 
all  his  sentiments  and  conduct;  and  I  will  point 
you  to  a  well-conducted  nursery,  to  noble  and 
high-minded  parents,  faithful  to  their  offspring. 
Theirs  is  a  holy  and  a  happy  home ;  and  the  bless- 
ing of  God  rests  upon  it.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
in  the  wayward,  dissolute  child  I  discern  unfaith- 
ful parents  who  have  no  respect  for  religion,  and 
who  take  no  interest  in  the  spiritual  welfare  of 
their  children.  Thus  the  child  is  a  living  com- 
mentary upon  its  home  and  its  parents.  The 
fruits  of  the  latter  will  be  seen  in  the  character 
of  the  former.  The  child  is  the  moral  reproduc- 
tion of  the  parent.  Hence  the  pious  parent  is 
rewarded  in  his  child,  and  the  immoral  parent  is 
cursed  in  his  child.  Whatsoever  thou  sowest  in 
thy  child,  thai  shalt  thou  also  reap. 

The  precepts  of  home  are  unavailing  unless  en- 
forced by  a  corresponding  example.  Nothing  is 
so  forcible  and  encouraging  as  the  ''Follow  me." 
li  proves  sincerity  and  earnestness;  and  is  adapt- 
ed to  the  imitative  capacity  and  disposition  of  the 
child.  It  is  all-commanding  and  resistless.  Says 
Solomon,  "Iron  Bharpeneth  iron;  so  a  man  sharji- 
eneth  the  countenance  of  his  friend."  Says  Paul, 
"It  is  good  neither  to  eat  flesh,  nor  to  drink  wine, 
nor  anything  whereby  thy  brother  stumbleth,  or 


HOME-EXAMPLE. 


241 


is  offended,  or  is  made  weak."  Says  Shakspeare, 
"  One  drunkard  loves  another  of  the  name."  Says 
Dr.  Young — 

"  Ambition  fires  ambition  ;  love  of  gain 
Strikes  like  a  pestilence  from  breast  to  breast ; 
Riot,  pride,  perfidy,  blue  vapor's  breath ; 
And  inhumanity  is  caught  from  man, 
From  smiling  man." 

If  such  is  the  influence  of  example,  we  must  ad- 
mit the  necessity  of  a  true  Christian  example  in 
the  family.  It  is  necessary  because  it  is  the  con- 
dition of  the  efficacy  of  home-precepts.  "During 
the  minority  of  reason,  imitation  is  the  regent  of 
the  soul,  and  they  who  are  least  swayed  by  argu- 
ment are  most  governed  by  example."  We  learn 
from  example  before  we  can  speak.  Hence  if 
we  would  have  our  children  walk  in  the  way  of 
God's  commandments,  we  must  go  before  them ; 
we  must  take  the  lead  ;  we  must  exemplify  in  our 
action  what  we  incorporate  in  our  oral  instruc- 
tions ;  our  light  must  shine  not  only  upon,  but  be- 
fore them ;  they  must  see  our  good  works  as  well 
as  hear  our  good  precepts.  Said  a  man  once  to 
J.  A.  James,  "I  owe  everything  under  God,  to  the 
eminent  and  consistent  piety  of  my  father.  So 
thoroughly  consistent  was  he,  that  I  could  find 
nothing  in  the  smallest  degree  at  variance  with 
his  character  as  a  professor  of  religion.  This 
kept  its  hold  upon  me."  It  was  the  means  of 
his  conversion  to  God. 

Thus  children  readily  discern  any  discrepancy 
11 


242  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

between  a  parent's  teaching  and  example.  If  wo 
are  professors  of  religion,  and  they  see  us  worldly- 
minded,  grasping  after  riches,  pleasures  and  hon- 
ors; the  dupes  of  ungodly  fashion,  manifesting  a 

malicious  spirit,  indolent,  prayerlcss,  and  indiffer- 
ent to  their  spiritual  welfare,  what  lb  they  infer 

but  that  we  are  hypocrites,  and  will  our  precepts 
then  do  them  any  good?  No.  "Line  upon  line 
and  precept  upon  precept"  will  be  given  to  no 
purpose.  Hence  the  necessity  of  enforcing  our 
precepts  by  Christian  deportment.  Speak  in  an 
angry  tone  before  your  child;  and  what  will  it 
avail  for  you  to  admonish  him  against  anger? 
Many  parents  express  surprise  that  all  they  can 
say  to  their  children  does  uo  good;  they  remain 
Stubborn,  self-willed  and  recreant. 

But  if  these  parents  will  look  at  what  they  have 
done  as  well  as  said,  they  will  perhaps  he  less  sur- 
prised. They  may  find  a  solution  of  the  problem 
in  their  own  capricious  disposition,  turbulent  pas- 
sions and  ungodly  walk.  The  child  will  soon  dis- 
card a  parent's  precepts  when  they  are  not  en- 
forced  by  a  parent's  example.  Hence  that  parent 
who  ruins  his  own  soul  can  do  but  little  for  the 
soul  of  liis  child.  The  blasphemer  and  sabbath- 
breaker  is  unfit  to  correct  his  child  for  swearing 
and  sabbath-breaking.  lie  alone  who  doeth  the 
truth  can  teach  liis  children  truth.  He  only  who 
ha-  good  habits  can  teaeh  his  children  i^ood  habits. 
"  Who  loves."  says  William  Jay,  "to  take  his  meat 
from  a  leprous  hand  ?"  A  drunkard  will  make  a 
poor  preacher  of  sobriety.     A  proud,  passionate 


HOME-EXAMPLE.  243 

father  is  a  wretched  rccommender  of  humility  and 
meekness  to  his  children.  "What  those  who  are 
under  his  care,  see,  will  more  than  counteract 
what  they  hear ;  and  all  his  efforts  will  be  re- 
jected with  the  question,  "Thou  that  teachest  an- 
other, teackest  thou  not  thyself?"  Hence  parents 
should  say  to  their  children,  "  Be  ye  followers  of 
me,  even  as  I  also  am  of  Christ."  Their  exam- 
ple should  include  all  their  precepts.  In  this  way 
they  both  hear  and  see  religion  in  its  living,  mov- 
ing and  breathing  form  before  them.  They  should 
thus  go  in  and  out  before  them,  leading  them  step 
by  step  to  heaven. 

"  As  a  bird  each  fond  endearment  tries 
To  tempt  her  new-fledged  offspring  to  the  skies, 
They  tried  each  art,  reproved  each  dull  delay, 
Allured  to  brighter  worlds,  and  led  the  way !" 

It  is  also  necessary  because  of  its  adaptation  to 
the  capacities  and  imitative  disposition  of  chil- 
dren. They  judge  by  the  organs  of  sense,  and 
by  their  perceptions  of  truth  through  externals. 
Naked  abstract  truth  does  not  sufficiently  inter- 
est them.  They  are  pleased  with  history,  nar- 
rative, illustration,  more  than  with  philosophy. 
They  are  awake  to  the  first  and  receive  from 
them  a  lasting  impression ;  while  the  impres- 
sion made  by  the  second  is  dreamy  and  ephem- 
eral. They  will  never  forget  your  example  be- 
cause it  is  adapted  to  their  taste  and  capacity. 
Long  after  they  have  forgotten  your  precepts 
upon  the  duty  and  privilege  of  prayer,  will  they 


244  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

remember  your  prayers ;  and  long  after  the  in- 
fluence of  the  former  lias  faded,  will  that  of  the 
latter  rule  and  allure  them  to  God.  Hence  the 
necessity  of  a  Christian  home-example.  "If  any 
have  children  or  nephews,  let  them  learn  first 
to  show  piety  at  home." 

If  such,  then,  are  its  influence  and  neces- 
sity, we  can  easily  infer  the  duty  of  parents  to 
show  their  children  a  Christian  example.  If 
they  form  their  character  upon  the  approved 
model  of  their  parents,  then  the  duty  to  give 
them  a  Christian  model  is  very  obvious.  They 
will  rather  follow  your  ungodly  example  than 
obey  your  godly  precepts.  "To  give  children," 
says  Archbishop  Tillotson,  "good  instruction  and 
a  bad  example,  is"  but  beckoning  to  them  with 
the  head  to  show  them  the  way  to  heaven — while 
you  take  them  by  the  hand  to  lead  them  in  the 
way  to  hell." 

This  duty  is,  therefore,  enforced  by  the  most 
powerful  motives.  The  influence  and  benefit 
of  a  pious  example;  the  promised  rewards  at- 
tending  it;  the  deep  curse  that  attends  its  ab- 
sence; the  misery  which  a  bad  example  entails 
upon  all  the  members  of  the  Christian  house- 
hold; and  especially  the  fruits  of  both  a  good 
and  bad  example,  in  eternity, — all  these  consid- 
erations should  prompt  you  to  the  faithful  per- 
formance of  this  duty.  If  the  members  of  your 
household  may  be  ruined  here  by  a  bad  exam- 
ple, what  will  be  its  consequences  in  the  eternal 
world  ? 


HOME-EXAMPLE.  245 

"  If  men  of  good  lives, 
tVho,  by  their  virtuous  actions,  stir  up  others 
To  noble  and  religious  imitation, 
Receive  the  greater  glory  after  death 
As  sin  must  needs  confess ;  what  may  they  feel 
In  height  of  torment,  and  in  weight  of  vengeance, 
Not  only  they  themselves  not  doing  well, 
But  set  a  light  up  to  show  men  to  hell?" 

We  see  a  similar  inducement  to  this  duty  in  the 
blessings  and  rewards  of  a  pious  example.  Its 
blessings  are  unspeakable  both  here  and  hereafter. 
The  temporal  and  eternal  welfare  of  your  home, 
the  hope  of  meeting  your  children  in  heaven,  and 
receiving  there  the  promised  reward  of  your  stew- 
ardship, depend  upon  this  duty.  That  family  is 
happy  as  well  as  holy,  where  the  parents  rear  up 
their  children  under  the  fostering  influence  of  a 
Christian  example. 

"Behold  his  little  ones  around  him!  they  bask  in  the  sun- 
shine of  smile ; 

And  infant  innocence  and  joy  lighten  these  happy  faces; 

He  is  holy,  and  they  honor  him ;  he  is  loving ;  and  they  love 
him  ; 

He  is  consistent,  and  they  esteem  him ;  he  is  firm,  and  they 
fear  him. 

His  house  is  the  palace  of  peace ;  for  the  Prince  of  peace  is 
there. 

Even  so,  from  the  bustle  of  life,  he  goeth  to  his  well-ordered 
home." 

A  serious  obstacle  to  the  efficacy  of  a  good  ex- 
ample is,  the  too  frequent  want  of  agreement  in 


246  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

the  example  of  the  parents.  That  of  the  father 
often  conflicts  with  and  neutralizes  that  of  the 
mother.  They  are  not  one  in  their  example. 
This  the  children  soon  see,  and  disregard  the 
good  rather  than  the  bad  example.  "  How  can 
two  walk  together  except  they  be  agreed  ?"  The 
child  cannot  follow  the  pious  father  in  the  way  of 
life,  when  the  ungodly  mother  secretly  and  openly 
draws  him  back.  Operated  upon  by  two  opposite 
influences,  he  will  move  between  them. 

We  are  here  taught  the  imprudence,  and  we 
might  add,  sin,  of  pious  persons  forming  a  matri- 
monial alliance  with  wicked  and  ungodly  persons. 
In  the  choice  of  a  companion  for  life,  we  should 
consider  an  agreement  in  religious  as  well  as  in 
social  character.  How  many  unhappy  matches 
and  homes  and  children  and  parents  have  been 
made  by  disobedience  to  the  divine  precept,  "Be 
ye  not  unequally  yoked  with  unbelievers?"  Isaac 
ami  Rebecca  showed  their  appreciation  of  this  pre- 
cept in  the  care  they  took  to  procure  a  pious  wife 
for  Jacob.  "I  am  weary  of  my  life,"  says  Rebec- 
ca, "because  of  the  daughters  of  Heth;  if  Jacob 
take  a  wife  of  the  daughters  of  Heth,  such  as 
these,  what  good  shall  my  life  do  me?"  This 
should  be  the  solicitude  of  every  Christian  par- 
ent. Parents  should  possess  unanimity  of  spirit 
and  practice  in  making  up  and  giving  the  home- 
example.  They  should  walk  unitedly,  like  Zach- 
arias  and  Elizabeth,  in  all  the  ordinances  and  stat- 
utes of  the  Lord  blameless. 


CHAPTER  XXI. 


THE    CHOICE    OF    PURSUITS. 


H  For  what  then  was  I  born  ?  to  fill  the  circling  year 
With  daily  toil  for  daily  bread,  with  sordid  pains  and  pleasures  ? 
To  walk  this  chequered  world,  alternate  light  and  darkness, 
The  day-dreams  of   deep  thought  followed  by  the    night- 
dreams  of  fancy  ? 
To  be  one  in  a  full  procession  ? — to  dig  my  kindred  clay  ? 
To  decorate  the  gallery  of  art  ?  to  clear  a  few  acres  of  forest  ? 
For  more  than  these,  my  soul,  thy  God  hath  lent  thee  life  !" 

The  choice  of  positions  and  pursuits  in  life  is 
one  important  and  responsible  mission  of  home. 
Children  look  up  to  their  parents  to  aid  them  in 
this.  They  are  to  have  them  prepared  for  a  use- 
ful citizenship  in  the  state.  Life  demands  that 
each  of  us,  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  self-preser- 
vation and  of  our  relations  to  human  society,  pre- 
pare for  some  useful  occupation,  not  only  for  a 
livelihood,  but  also  for  the  benefit  of  the  state. 
The  duty  and  the  interest  of  the  parent  are  to 
bring  up  the  child  to  such  a  pursuit  as  is  best 
adapted  to  his  circumstances  and  abilities.     Our 


248  THE    CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

character,  success  and  happiness  in  life,  depend 
upon  our  obedience  to  this  law  of  adaptation. 

As  such  pursuits  are  chosen  and  prepared  for, 
while  under  the  guardian  care  of  our  parents,  it 
is  evident  they  should  take  an  active  part  both  in 
the  choice  and  the  preparation.  They  arc  respon- 
sible for  these  as  far  as  their  influence  extends. 
It  is  their  duty  to  afford  their  children  aid  in 
choosing  and  preparing  for  a  useful  and  appropri- 
ate occupation,  to  fit  them  for  the  circumstances 
in  which  the  Providence  of  God  may  place  them, 
and  to  educate  them  for  an  efficient  citizenship  in 
the  state. 

This  is  but  developing  the  principle  of  self- 
preservation  in  the  child,  and  fitting  him  for  a 
proper  adherence  to  it  in  after  life.  The  home 
prepares  the  individual  for  his  legitimate  position 
in  the  state  as  Well  as  in  the  church  ;  and  this  im- 
plies not  only  his  education  in  the  principles  and 
practice  of  virtue  and  religion,  but  also  in  some 
useful  and  appropriate  pursuit,  by  which  he  may 
unci  the  wants  and  prepare  for  the  exigencies  of 
life.  To  rear  up  your  children  therefore,  in  idle- 
ness and  ignorance  of  any  useful  occupation,  is 
n<>t  only  doing  great  injustice  to  the  child,  but 
also  to  human  society,  subjecting  her  to  expendi- 
ture and  corruption  in  the  support  and  influence 
of  paupers  and  criminals.  Every  child  should 
learn  some  trade  or  profession  in  order  to  self- 
subsistence  and  to  the  prosperity  and  well-being 

of  the  state. 

Hence  it  is  a  breach  of  moral  obligation  for  paiv 


CHOICE    OF    PURSUITS.  249 

ents,  whether  rich  or  poor,  to  permit  their  chil- 
dren to  grow  up  in  idleness  and  vagrancy.  If 
they  do  so,  and  as  a  consequence,  drag  out  an  im- 
poverished and  miserable  existence,  struggling 
between  the  importunities  of  want  and  those  pre- 
carious contingencies  upon  which  its  satisfaction  is 
suspended  ;  and  in  the  hour  of  despair  and  urgent 
necessity,  they  resort  to  crime  in  order  to  meet 
their  wants,  or  to  dissipation  in  order  to  avert 
their  wretchedness  for  a  time,  is  it  not  plain  that 
their  parents  are  responsible  to  God  for  all  their 
crime  and  misery  ? 

Nothing  will,  therefore,  justif}T  them  in  their 
omission  of  this  duty.  No  amount  of  inherited 
wealth  ;  no  dependancc  upon  wealthy  relatives ; 
no  honorable  station  in  society,  will  excuse  them 
from  training  up  their  children  to  some  useful 
employment  hy  which,  if  circumstances  demand, 
they  may  secure  a  subsistence.  And  even  if  their 
legacy  render  it  unnecessary  to  be  followed  in  or- 
der to  subsistence,  it  is  a  duty  which  is  due  to  the 
state.  No  man  can  with  impunity  live  in  the 
state  without  some  employment.  Tins  would  he 
an  infringement  upon  her  rights  and  an  abuse  of 
her  privileges.  The  individual,  with  all  his  wealth 
and  talents,  belongs  to  the  state,  and  should,  there- 
fore, make  such  an  appropriation  of  these  as  will 
be  most  conducive  to  its  welfare. 

And   besides,   we    know    not   what   disastrous 

changes  may  take  place   in  life.     The  parental 

legacy  may  soon  be  squandered  by  the  child,  and 

he  be  left  without  funds  or  friends  ;  the  cmergen- 

*11 


250  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

cies  of  the  future  may  increase  beyond  all  antici- 
pation; sickness  and  manifold  adversities  may 
soon  sweep  away  all  his  inheritance.  And  then 
what  will  become  of  your  child  if  be  is  ignorant  of 
any  pursuit  in  which  to  engage  for  a  subsistence.? 
Besides,  it  is  a  matter  of  very  common  observa- 
tion, that  those  who  receive  a  large  legacy  and 
have  been  brought  up  in  idleness,  become  prodi- 
gal in  their  expenditure,  and  squander  their  for- 
tune by  dissipation  more  rapidly  than  their  parents 
amassed  it  by  industry  and  frugality ;  and  then, 
ignorant  and  helpless  and  profligate,  they  eke  out 
a  wretched  existence  in  abject  poverty,  resorting 
to  illegitimate  means  for  a  living,  until  the  last 
fruits  of  their  improper  training  may  be  seen  in 
the  state's  prison  or  upon  the  gibbet. 

History  will  afford  ample  illustration  of  this. 
From  it  we  may  easily  infer  the  duty  of  parental 
interposition.  The  Athenians  expressed  their 
sense  of  this  duty  in  the  enactment  of  a  law  that, 
if  parents  did  not  qualify  their  children  for  secur- 
ing a  livelihood  by  having  them  learn  some  occu- 
pation, the  child  was  not  bound  to  make  provision 
for  the  parent  when  old  and  necessitous. 

In  the  selection  of  an  occupation  for  his  chil- 
dren, 1h«'  | Kin  nt  should  consult  their  taste  and 
talents  and  circumstances,  and  choose  for  them  a 
pursuit  adapted  to  these.  If  his  child  is  better 
suited  for  a  mechanical  pursuit,  he  should  direct 
his  attention  to  it,  and  educate  him  for  it.  And 
thus  in  all  respects  he  should  obey  the  great  law  of 
correspondence  between  the  taste  and  capacity  of 


CHOICE   OF    PURSUITS.  251 

the  child,  and  the  occupation  to  be  chosen  for 
him. 

The  violation  of  this  law  does  great  injury  to 
the  child  and  to  society,  inasmuch  as  it  prevents 
his  success  and  contentment,  and  floods  the  state 
with  quacks  and  humbuggery.  The  parent  should 
never  compel  the  child  to  learn  a  trade  or  profes- 
sion which  he  dislikes,  and  for  which  he  shows  no 
talents.  Many  parents,  through  a  false  pride, 
force  their  children  into  a  profession  for  which 
they  have  neither  inclination  nor  capacity.  "While 
the  parent  lias  a  right  to  interfere  in  the  choice  of 
a  pursuit,  his  interference  should  not  be  arbitrary, 
neither  should  it  run  counter  to  the  will  of  the 
child  unless  for  special  moral  and  religious  rea- 
sons, or  on  account  of  inability  to  gratify  him. 
However,  this  is  often  done.  Even  though  they 
acknowledge  their  unfitness  for  a  profession,  yet 
their  misguided  pride  prompts  them  to  drag  their 
children  into  a  calling  which  in  after  life  they 
disgrace. 

Some  parents,  on  the  other  hand,'  through  a 
penurious  spirit,  refuse  to  aid  their  sons  in  their 
preparation  for  a  profession  for  which  their  talents 
eminently  qualify  them.  They  refuse  to  educate 
their  sons  for  the  ministry  because  it  is  not  a  lu- 
crative calling,  though  the}*  give  evidence  of  both 
mental  and  moral  adaptation  for  that  holy  office. 
Others,  through  a  blind  zeal  and  a  false  pride, 
force  their  sons  into  this  sacred  calling.  Mistaken 
parents!  rather  let  your  children  break  stone  up- 
on the  road,  or  dig  in  the  earth,  yea,  rather  let 


252  THE    CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

them  beg  their  bread,  than  thrust  them  into  an 
occupation  to  which  God  has  not  called  them,  and 
for  which  they  have  neither  inclination  nor  tal- 
ents, and  in  which  they  would,  perhaps,  not  only, 
ruin  their  own  souls,  but  contribute  to  the  dam- 
nation of  others.  "There  are  diversities  of  gifts 
and  of  operations."  All  are  not  called  nor  fitted 
for  the  ministry.  Children  soon  give  indications 
of  specific  talents  and  suitableness  for  a  calling  in 
life.  "We  should  critically  observe  their  early  pro- 
pensities. These  will  indicate  their  peculiar  tal- 
ents. Unfit  for  and  disliking  an  occupation,  they 
will  become  unsettled  and  dissatisfied,  and  at  best 
will  be  but  mimics  and  quacks.  Their  business 
will  make  them  sullen  slaves.  It  is  because  of 
parental  disobedience  to  this  law  of  adaptation 
that  we  have  so  much  humbuggery  in  the  .world 
at  the  present  day.  Study,  therefore,  the  infantile 
predilections  of  your  children  to  particular  em- 
ployments. These  will  be  an  index  to  their  prov- 
idential calling,  and  should  govern  your  choice 
for  them. 

The  social  position  of  the  child  should  also  be 
considered.  If  possible,  the  character  of  his  pur- 
suits should  not  conflict  with  those  social  elements 
in  which  he  has  been  reared  up.  It  should  not 
detract  from  his  standing  in  society,  nor  disrupt 
his  associations  in  life.  Many  parents,  for  the  sake 
of  money,  will  refuse  to  educate  and  fit  their  chil- 
dren lor  sustaining  the  position  they  hold  in  soci- 
ety. They  bring  them  up  in  ignorance,  and 
devote  them  exclusively  to  Mammon;  and  then 


CHOICE   OF   PURSUITS. 


253 


when  thrown  upon  their  own  resources  they  are 
qualified  neither  in  manners  nor  in  pursuit  for  a 
continuance  in  those  peculiar  relations  to  society 
which  they  at  first  sustained. 

The  exigencies  of  the  child  should  also  be  con- 
sidered. If  his  home  can  afford  him  no  patrimo- 
ny, it  is  then  more  important  to  consider  the 
lucrative  character  of  the  pursuit  chosen,  and  also 
the  demands  of  that  social  position  he  is  to  main- 
tain in  life.  Its  profits  should  then  he  fully  ade- 
quate to  these  demands,  and  suited  to  the  emer- 
gencies which  are  peculiar  to  his  circumstances. 
The  capital  required  to  engage  in  it,  and  its  hear- 
ing upon  the  health  of  body  and  mind,  should 
also  be  regarded.  This  is  an  important  consider- 
ation, and  not  sufficiently  attended  to  by  parents. 
How  many  children  are  forced  into  employments 
which  they  have  not  the  means  of  carrying  on, 
and  for  which  their  state  of  health  altogether  un- 
fits them !  A  pursuit  involving  sedentary  habits 
does  not  suit  a  child  whose  state  of  health  de- 
mands exercise. 

You  should  make  choice  of  but  one  pursuit  for 
your  child,  and  discourage  in  him  the  American 
tendency  to  be  "jack  of  all  trades."  One  occu- 
pation, whatever  it  may  be,  whether  trade  or  pro- 
fession, if  properly  pursued,  will  demand  all  his 
energies,  and  give  him  no  time  to  follow  another; 
and  besides,  it  will  afford  him  an  ample  subsist- 
ence. There  is  much  truth  in  the  two  old  and 
quaint  adages,  "jack  of  all  trades,  and  master  of 
none ;"  "  he  has  too  many  irons  in  the  fire, — some 


254  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

of  them  must  burn!"  Show  your  children  the 
truth  and  application  of  these. 

But  while  this  is  one  extreme,  and  detrimental 
to  the  interests  of  the  child,  its  opposite  extreme, 
viz.,  that  of  bringing  up  the  child  to  no  pursuit 
whatever,  is  stil]  more  injurious.  We  had  better 
have  top  many  irons  in  the  fire  than  none  at  all. 
It  is  u  base  and  cowardly  desertion  of  duty  t<> 
shrink  from  the  task  of  human  occupation.  Con- 
stituted as  human  society  is.  the  members  of  it 
being  mutually  dependent  upon  each  other  for 
support,  it  is  evident  that  our  happiness  materially 
depends  Upon  the  active  concurrence  of  each  indi- 
vidual in  the  general  system  of  social  well-being. 
lie  who  withholds,  therefore,  his  cooperation  and 
stands  aloof  from  all  employment,  destroys  a  link 
in  that  chain  of  things  by  which  the  fabric  o\'  so- 
ciety is  kept  together  and  preserved.  He  is  un- 
faithful to  those  sacred  obligations  which  arise 
out  of  our  relations  to  the  state  and  the  church, 
and  he  abuses  those  inalienable  rights  with  which 

God  has  invested  the  social  compact.  Besides, 
lie  fails  to  meet  those  conditions  upon  which  the 
vigorous  development  of  individual  life  and  char- 
acter depends.  Indolence  is  no  friend  either  to 
physical,  mental  or  moral  development.  The 
body  becomes  imbecile,  the  spirit  supine  and  sen- 
timent;,!, t]|(.  morals  vitiated,  and  the  mind  Binks 
into  complete  puerility.      Activity  is  a   law  of  all 

life,  and  the  condition  of  its  healthy  development 
and  maturity.  Without  it  we  resort  to  jejune 
amusement,  and  from  amusement  we  arc  hurried 


CHOICE    OF    PURSUITS. 


255 


on  to  dissipation,  to  the  card  table  and  dram  shop  ; 
and  from  dissipation  we  sink  to  degradation,  in- 
famy and  wretchedness.  Idleness  is  thus  the 
fruitful  mother  of  vice  and  misery.  Our  lives 
cannot  exist  in  a  state  of  neutrality  between  ac- 
tive good  and  active  evil.  It  is,  therefore,  the 
duty  of  the  Christian  home  to  prepare  her  young 
members  for  some  useful  calling  in  life,  not  only 
as  a  means  of  subsistence,  but  also  as  a  safeguard 
against  the  evils  of  idleness. 


CHAPTER   XXII. 


THE    HOME-PARLOR. 


"  The  foolish  floatincss  of  vanity,  and  solemn  trumperies  of 
pride, — 

Harmful  copings  with  the  better,  and  empty-headed  apings 
of  the  worse  ; 

Vapid  pleasures,  the  weariness  of  gaiety,  the  strife  and  bus- 
tle (if  the  world  ; 

The  hollowness  of  courtesies,  and  substance  of  deceits,  idle- 
ness and  pastime — 

All  these  and  many  more  alike,  thick   conveying  fancies, 

Flit  in  throngs  about  my  theme,  as  honey-bees  at  even  to 
their  hives  !" 

The  (  Ihristian  home  includes  the  parlor.  This 
department  we  must  give  but  a  brief  and  passing 
ootice.  Yet  it  is  as  important  and  responsible  as 
the  nursery.  In  it  we  have  a  view  of  the  rela- 
tion-of  home  to  Bociety  beyond  it.  The  parlor 
is  sel  apart  for  social  communion  with  the  world. 
M 1 1 « ■  1 1  of  momentous  interest  is  involved  in  this 
relation.  The  choice  of  companions,  the  forming 
of  attachments  and   matrimonial  alliances,  the 


THE    IIOME-PARLOR. 


257 


establishment  of  social  position  and  influence  in 
life  beyond  the  family, — these  are  all  involved  in 
the  home-parlor. 

If  we  would,  therefore,  escape  the  shackles  and 
contamination  of  corrupt  society,  we  must  hold 
the  parlor  sacred  and  give  to  it  the  air  and  bear- 
ing of  at  least  a  moral  aristocracy.  Home  is  the 
first  form  of  society.  The  law  of  love  rules  and 
reigns  there.  It  is  enthroned  in  the  heart,  and 
casts  light  around  our  existence.  In  that  society 
we  live  above  the  trammels  of  artificial  life.  In 
its  parlor  the  members  merge  with  society  beyond 
its  sacred  precincts.  Hence  it  is  the  most  beauti- 
ful room;  the  best  furniture  is  there;  smiles  adorn 
it ;  friends  meet  there ;  fashion  meets  there  in 
her  silks  and  jewels,  with  her  circumstance  and 
custom,  her  sympathies,  antipathies  and  divers 
kinds  of  conversation ;  form  and  profession  reign 
there;  flatteries  and  hypocrisies  intrude  them- 
selves there ;  pledges  are  given  there ;  attach- 
ments and  vows  are  made  there ;  the  mind  and 
heart  are  impressed  and  moulded  there ;  the  cob- 
web lines  of  etiquette  are  drawn  there ;  a  pano- 
rama of  social  fascinations  pass  before  the  youth- 
ful eye  there, — these  make  the  partor  the  most 
dangerous  department  of  home.  There  the  young 
receive  their  first  introduction  to  society ;  there 
they  see  the  world  in  all  the  brilliancy  of  outward 
life,  in  the  pomp' and  pageantry  of  a  vanity  fair. 
All  seems  to  them  as  a  fury  dream,  as  a  brilliant 
romance ;  their  hearts  are  allured  by  these  out- 
ward attractions ;  their  imaginations  are  fed  upon 


258  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

the  unreal,  and  they  learn  to  judge  character  by 
the  external  habiliments  in  which  its  reality  is 
concealed.  They  estimate  worth  by  the  beauty 
of  the  face  and  form,  by  the  cost  of  dress  and  the 
genuflections  of  the  body.  Tiny  form  (heir  no- 
tions of  happiness  from  fashion,  fortune  and  po- 
sition. They  become  enslaved  to  lovesick  novels 
and  fashionable  amusements.  There,  too,  they 
make  choice  of  companions;  there  they  form 
matrimonial  alliances  ;  there  their  hearts  are  de- 
veloped, their  minds  trained  for  social  life,  their 
affections  directed,  and  influence  brought  to  bear 
upon  them,  which  will  determine  their  weal  or 
their  woe. 

If  such  be  the  influence  of  the  home-parlor, 
should  it  not  be  held  sacred,  and  made  to  corres- 
pond in  all  the  uses  for  which  it  is  set  apart,  with 
the  spirit  and  character  of  a  Christian  family; 
and  should  not  its  doors  be  effectually  guarded 
againsl  the  intrusion  of  spurious  and  demoraliz- 
ing elements  of  society  ? 

Parents  should  teach  their  children  all  about 
the  character,  interests  and  deceptions  of  parlor- 
life  They  should  undeceive  them  in  their  natu- 
ral proneness  to  judge  people  from  the  standpoint 
of  character  assumed  in  the  parlor.  They  see  the 
Lamb  there,  but  not  the  lion;  the  smile  but  not 
the  frown  ;  the  affability  of  manner,  but  not  the 
tyranny  of  spirit.  They  hear  the  language  of 
flattery,  hut  not  the  tongue  of  slander.  They  see 
no  weak  points,  detect  no  evil  temper  and  bad 
habits.     There  is  an  artificial  screen  behind  which 


V 

THE   HOME-PARLOR.  259 

all  that  is  revolting  and  dangerous  is  concealed. 
"Who  would  venture  to  judge  a  person  by  his  me- 
chanical movements  in  the  parlor  ?  Many  are 
thefe  the  very,  opposite  to  what  they  are  else- 
where : — 

"  Abroad  too  kind,  at  home  'tis  steadfast  hate, 
And  one  eternal  tempest  of  debate. 
What  foul  eruptions  from  a  look  most  meek  ! 
What  thunders  bursting  from  a  dimpled  cheek  ! 
Such  dead  devotion,  such  zeal  for  crimes, 
Such  licensed  ill,  such  masquerading  times, 
Such  venal  faiths,  such  misapplied  applause, 
Such  flattered  guilt,  and  such  inverted  laws  !" 

One  of  the  most  dangerous  periods  of  life  is, 
when  we  leave  the  nursery  and  school,  and  en- 
ter the  parlor.  "With  what  solicitude,  therefore, 
should  Christian  parents  guard  their  parlors  from 
social  corruption.  They  should  prepare  their 
children  for  society,  not  only  by  teaching  them 
its  manners  and  customs,  how  to  act  in  company, 
how  to  grace  a  party,  and  move  with  refined  ease 
among  companions  there,  but  also  By  teaching 
them  the  dangers  and  corruptions  which  lurk  in 
their  midst  and  follow  in  the  train  of  rustling 
silks  and  fashionable  denouement.  They  should 
never  permit  their  parlor  to  become  the  scene  of 
fashionable  tyranny.  The  Christian  parror  can 
be  no  depot  for  fashion.  It  should  be  sacred  to 
God  and  to  the  church.  It  should  be  a  true  ex- 
ponent  of  the  social  elements  of  Christianity.  It 
should  not  be  a  hermitage,  a  stale  of  seclusion 
from  the  world ;  but  should  conform  to  fashion, 


200 


Till:    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


yet  BO  far  only  as  the  laws  of  a  sanctified  taste  and 
refinement  will  admit. 

These  laws  exclude  all  compromise  and  amalga- 
mation with  the  ungodly  spirit  and  customs  of  the 
world.  Allegiance  to  the  higher  and  better  law 
of  God  will  keep  US  from  submission  to  the  laws 
of  a  depraved  taste  and  carnal  desire.  We  must 
keep  ourselves  unspotted  from  the  world.  When- 
ever we  Bubmit  with  scrupulous  exactness  to  the 
laws  of  fashion:  whenever  we  yield  a  servile  com- 
plaisance to  its  forms  and  ceremonies,  wink  at  its 
extremes  and  immoralities  and  absurd  expendi- 
tures, seek  its  flatteries'  and  indulge  in  its  whims 
and  caprices,  by  throwing  open  our  parlors  as  the 
theatre  of  their  denouement,  and  introducing  our 
children  to  their  actors  and  master-spirits,  we 
prostitute  our  homes,  our  religion  and  those  whom 
( tod  has  given  ua  to  train  up  for  Himself,  to  inter- 
ests and  pleasures  the  mosl  unworthy  the  Chris- 
tian name  and  character. 

There  is  much  danger  now  of  the  Christian 
home  becoming  in  this  way  slavishly  hound  to  the 
influence  and  attractions  of  society  beyond  the 
pale  of  the  church,  until  all  relish  for  home-en? 
joynieiit  is  lost,  and  its  niemhers  no  longer  seek 
and  enjoy  each  other's  association.  They  drain 
the  cuf  of  voluptuous  pleasure  to  its  dregs,  and 
flee  from  home  as  jejune  and  supine.  The  hus- 
band leaves  his  wife,  and  seeks  his  company  in 
fashionable  saloons,  at  the  card  tabic  or  in  halls 
of  revelry.  The  wife  leaves  the  society  of  her 
children,   and  in  company  with   a  bosom   com- 


THE    HOME-PARLOR. 


261 


panion,  seeks  to  throw  off  the  tedium  of  home,  at 
masquerade  meetings,  at  the  theater  or  in  the 
ball-room,  where 

"  Vice,  once  by  modest  Nature  chained, 
And  legal  ties,  expatiates  unrestrained  ; 
Without  thin  decency  held  up  to  view, 
Naked  she  stalks  o'er  law  and  gospel  too  !" 

The  children  follow  their  example ;  become 
disgusted  with  each  other's  company,  and  sacri- 
fice their  time  and  talents  to  a  thousand  little  tri- 
fles and  absurdities.  Taste  becomes  depraved, 
and  loses  all  relish  for  rational  enjoyment.  The 
heart  teems  with  idle  fancies  and  vain  imagina- 
tions. Sentimentalism  takes  the  place  of  reli- 
gion ;  filthy  literature  and  fashionable  cards  shove 
the  Family  Bible  in  some  obscure  nook  of  their 
parlor  and  their  hearts.  The  hours  devoted  to 
family  prayer  are  now  spent  in  a  giddy  whirl  of 
amusement  and  intoxicating  pleasure,  in  the  study 
of  the  latest  fashions  and  of  the  newly-published 
love  adventures  of  some  nabob  in  the  world  of 
refined  scoundrclism.  The  parental  solicitude, 
once  directed  to  the  eternal  welfare  of  the  child, 
is  now  expended  in  match-making  and  setting 
out  in  the  world. 

Thus  does  the  Christian  home  often, become 
adulterated  with  the  world  by  its  indiscriminate 
association  with  unfit  social  elements.  That  por- 
tion of  society  win  ise  master-spirits  are  love-strick- 
en poets,  languishing  girls,  amorous  grandmoth- 
ers, and   sap-headed   fiction  writers,  is  certainly 


2G2  THE    CHRISTIAN    IIOME. 

unfit  for  a  place  in  the  parlor  of  the  Christian 
family.  "We  should  not  permit  the  principles  of 
common-sense  decorum  to  give  place  to  the  law- 
less vagaries  of  fancy  and  the  hollow-hearted 
forms  of  artificial  life.  Under  the  gaudy  drapery 
of  smiles  and  flounces,  of  rustling  silks  and  bland- 
ishments, there  are  hearts  as  brutish  and  stulti-. 
fied,  and  heads  as  brainless  and  incapable  of  gen- 
tle and  moral  emotion,  and  characters  as  selfish 
and  ungenerous,  as  were -ever  concealed  beneath 
the  rags  of  poverty,  or  the  uncouth  manners  and 
rough  garb  of  the  incarcerated  villain  ! 

It  is,  therefore,  beneath  the  dignity  of  the 
Christian  to  permit  his  home  to  become  in  any 
way  a  prey  to  immoral  and  irreligious  associations 
and  influences.  Like  the  personal  character  of 
the  Christian,  it  should  be  kept  unspotted  from 
the  world;  and  no  spirit,  no  customs,  no  compan- 
ions, opposed  to  religion,  should  he  permitted  to 
enter  its  sacred  limits.  Heedless  of  this  impor- 
tant requisition,  parents  may  soon  see  their  chil- 
dren depart  from  the  ways  in  which  they  were 
trained  in  the  nursery,  and  at  last  become  a  curse 
to  them,  and  bring  down  their  gray  hairs  with 
sorrow  to  the  grave. 

Here  is  indeed  the  great  fault  of  many  Chris- 
tian parents  in  the  present  day.  They  do  not 
exert  that  guardian  eare  they  should  over  the 
BOcial  relations  and  interests  of  their  children. 
They  are  too  unscrupulous  in  their  introduction 
to  the  world,  and  leave  them  in  ignorance  of  its 
snares  and  deceptions.     What  results  can  they 


THE    HOME-PARLOR.  263 

look  for  if  they  permit  their  parlor  tables  to  be- 
come burdened  with  French  novels,  and  their 
children  to  mingle  in  company  whose  influence  is 
the  most  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  pure  and 
undefiled  religion  ?  Can  they  reflect  upon  their 
daughters  for  forming  improper  attachments  and 
alliances  ?  Can  they  wonder  if  their  sons  become 
desperadoes,  and  ridicule  the  religion  of  their  par- 
ents ?  No  !  They  permitted  them  to  dally  with 
the  fangs  of  a  viper  which  found  a  ready  admit- 
tance into  their  parlor;  and  upon  them,  therefore, 
will  rest  the  responsibility, — yea,  the  deep  and 
eternal  curse!  "Woe  unto  thee,  thou  unfaithful 
parent ;  the  voice  of  thy  children's  blood  shall 
send  up  from  the  hallowed  ground  of  home,  one 
loud  and  penetrating  cry  to  God  for  vengeance  ; 
and  thou  shalt  be  "beaten  with  many  stripes."  It 
will  not  only  cry  out  against  3^011,  but  cling  to  you ! 
Guard  your  parlor,  therefore,  from  the  corrupt- 
ing influence  of  all  immoral  associations.  Be 
not  carried  away  by  the  pomp  and  glare  of  refined 
and  decorated  wickedness.  Let  not  the  orna- 
ments and  magnificence  of  mere  outward  life  di- 
vert your  attention  from  those  hidden  principles 
which  prompt  to  action.  In  the  choice  of  com- 
panions for  your  children  in  the  parlor,  look  to 
the  ornaments  of  the  heart  rather  than  to  those 
of  the  body.  Be  not  allured  by  the  parade  of  cir- 
cumstance and  position  in  life :  Be  not  carried 
away  by  that  which  may  intoxicate  for  a  moment, 
and  then  leave  the  heart  in  more  wretchedness 
than  before.     Ever  remember  that  the  future  con- 


2G4  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

dition  of  your  children,  their  domestic  character 
and  happiness,  will  depend  upon  the  kind  of  com- 
pany yon  admit  in  your  parlor.  This  Leads  us  to 
the  consideration  of  the  part  Christian  parents 
should  take  in  the  marriage  of  their  children. 
This  we  shall  investigate  in  our  next  chapter  un- 
der the  head  of  "  Match-making," 


i 


CHAPTER   XXIII. 

MATCH-MAKING. 

SECTION   I. 

THE    RELATION    OF    PARENTS    TO    THE    MARRIAGE    CHOICE    (W 
THEIR    CHILDREN. 

"  Youth  longeth  for  a  kindred  spirit,  and  yet  yearneth  for  a 
heart  that  can  commune  with  his  own  ; 

Take  heed  that  what  charmeth  thee  is  real,  nor  springeth  of 
thine  own  imagination ; 

And  suffer  not  trifles  to  win  thy  love ;  for  a  wife  is  thine  unto 
death !" 

One  of  the  most  affecting  scenes  of  home-life 
is  that  of  the  bridal  hour !  Though  in  one  sense 
it  is  a  scene  of  joy  and  festivity ;  yet  in  another, 
it  is  one  of  deep  sadness.  "When  all  is  adorned 
with  flowers  and  smiles,  and  the  parlor  becomes 
the  theater  of  conviviality  and  parade,  even  then 
hearts  are  oppressed  with  sorrow  at  the  thought 
of  that  separation  which  is  soon  to  take  place. 

The  bridal  is  a  home-crisis.  It  is  the  breaking 
up  of  home-ties  and  communion,  a  separation  froim 
12 


266  THE    CHRISTIAN    IIOME. 

home  scenes,  a  lopping  off  from  the  parent  vine, 
•an  engrafting  into  a  strange  vine,  and  alas!  too 
often,  into  a  degenerate  vine.  As  the  youthful 
bride  stands  beside  her  affianced  husband,  to  be 
wedded  to  him  for  life,  and  reflects  that  the  short 
ceremonial  of  that  occasion  will  tear  her  forever 
from  the  loved  objects  and  scenes  of  her  child- 
hood-home, what  tears  of  bitter  sorrow  adorn  the 
bridal  cheek,  and  what  pungent  feelings  are  awak- 
ened by  her  last  farewell ! 

"  '  I  leave  thee,  sister  !  we  have  played 
Through  many  a  Joyous  hour, 
Where  the  silvery  gleam  of  the  olive  shade 
Hung  dim  o'er  fount  and  bower.' 

"  Yes !  I  leave  thee,  sister,  with  all  that  we 
have  enjoyed  together;  I  leave  thee  in  the  mem- 
ory of  our  childhood-haunts  and  song  and  prayer. 
We  cannot  be  as  we  have  been.  I  leave  thee 
now,  and  all  that  has  bound  us  together  as  one ; 
and  hereafter  memory  alone  can  hail  thee,  and 
will  do  so  with  her  burning  tear;  therefore,  kind 
sister,  let  me  weep ! 

"  '  I  leave  thee,  father !     Eve's  bright  moon, 
Must  now  light  other  feet, 
With  the  gathered  grapes,  and  the  lyre  in  tune, 
Thy  homeward  steps  to  greet.' 

"  Yes,  I  leave  thee,  father !  I  receive  thy  last 
blessing;  no  longer  shall  thy  protecting  hand 
guide  me;  no  longer  shall  thy  smile  be  music  to 
my  ear.     I  leave  thee,  oh,  therefore,  let  me  weep ! 


MATCH-MAKING. 


267 


"  '  Mother !  I  leave  tliee  !  on  tby  breast, 
Pouring  out  joy  and  woe ; 
I  have  found  that  holy  place  of  rest 
Still  changeless — yet  I  go  !' 

"  Yes,  I  go  from  thee,  mother !  Though  you 
have  watched  over  me  in  helpless  infancy  with  all 
a  mother's  love  and  care,  and  'lulled  me  with  your 
strain ;'  and  though  earth  may  not  afford  me  a  love 
like  yours ;  yet  I  go !  Oh,  therefore, '  sweet  moth- 
er, let  me  weep !' 

"  '  Oh,  friends  regretted,  scenes  forever  dear 
Remembrance  hails  you  with  her  burning  tear ; 
Drooping  she  bends  o'er  pensive  fancy's  urn, 
To  trace  the  hours  which  ne'er  can  return.'  ' 

If  momentous  interests  are  involved  in  mar- 
riage, then,  we  think  that  parents  should  take  an 
important  part  in  the  matrimonial  alliances  of 
their  children.  When  they  grow  up,  they  natu- 
rally seek  a  companion  for  life.  The  making 
choice  of  that  companion  is  a  crisis  in  their  his- 
tory, and  will  determine  their  future  interest  and 
happiness.  If  separation  from  home  is  a  great 
sacrifice,  then  we  should  look  well  to  the  grounds 
of  our  justification  in  making  that  sacrifice. 

We  propose,  under  the  head  of  "match-mak- 
ing," to  consider  the  part  which  parents  should 
take  in  the  marriage  of  their  children ;  and  also 
the  false  and  true  standards  of  judgment  both  for 
parents  and  their  children,  in  making  the  mar- 
riage choice  and  alliance. 

ilave  parents  a  right  to  take  any  part  in  the 


2G8 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


marriage  choice  and  alliance  of  their  children? 
Have  they  a  right  to  interfere  in  any  respect  with 

the  marriage  of  their  children?  That  they  do 
possess  such  a  right,  and  are  justified  in  the  exer- 
cise of  it  within  just  and  reasonable  limits,  is,  we 
think,  undisputed  by  any  one  acquainted  with  the 
"Word  of  God.  It  is  one  of  the  cardinal  preroga- 
tives and  duties  of  the  Christian  parent.  His  re- 
lation to  his  children  invests  him  with  it.  The 
age  and  inexperience  of  the  child,  on  the  one 
hand;  and  the  seductions  of  the  world,  on  the 
other,  imply  it.  Children  need  counsel  and  ad- 
monition ;  and  this  is  a  needs-be  for  the  interpo- 
sition of  the  parent's  superior  wisdom,  and  greater 
experience. 

This  right  is  plainly  exemplified  in  sacred  his- 
tory. Abraham  interfered  in  Isaac's  selection  of 
a  companion.  Isaac  and  Rebecca  aided  in  the 
choice  of  a  wife  for  Jacob.  And  indeed  through- 
out the  patriarchal  age,  you  find  this  right  recog- 
nized and  practiced.  It  was  also  acknowledged 
and  exercised  in  all  the  subsequent  ages  of  Juda- 
ism, in  the  age  of  primitive  Christianity,  and  even 
down  to  the  present  time,  in  every  true  Christian 
household.  The  right  still  exists,  and  receives 
the  sanction  of  the  church.  The  great  derelic- 
tion of  parents  now  is,  that  they  do  not  exercise 
it;  and  of  children,  that  they  do  not  recognize 
it.  "A  wise  son  heareth  his  father's  instructions." 
"The  c\e  thai  mocketli  at  his  father,  and  despiseth 
to  obey  his  mother,  the  ravens  of  the  valley  shall 
pluck  it  out,  and  the  young  eagles  shall  eat  it." 


MATCH-MAKING.  269 

"What  now  is  the  extent,  and  what  are  the  du- 
ties of  that  right  to  interfere?  This  is  a  difficult 
question,  and  can  receive  but  an  imperfect  answer. 
In  infancy  the  authority  of  the  parent  is  exercised 
without  any  reference  to  the  will  of  the  child,  be- 
cause reason  is  not  yet  developed.  But  when 
he  reaches  the  age  of  personal  accountability,  the 
control  of  the  parent  is  exercised  on  more  liberal 
principles ;  and  when,  by  age,  he  becomes  a  re- 
sponsible citizen,  the  legal  authority  of  the  parent 
ceases.  Still  he  possesses  moral  authority,  and 
has  a  right  Jo  exert  a  restraining  influence  over 
the  child.  This  does  not,  of  course,  involve  a 
right  to  compel  him  to  yield  to  the  parent's  arbi- 
trary will.  He  can  exert  but  a  moral  control  over 
him ;  and  it  is  the  child's  duty  to  yield  to  this, 
so  long  as  it  is  consistent  with  scripture  and  the 
maxims  of  sound  reason  and  conscience.  He 
should  consult  his  parents,  receive  them  into  his 
confidence,  and  give  priority  to  their  judgment 
and  counsels. 

Parents  have  the  right  to  use  coercive  measures 
to  prevent  an  imprudent  marriage  by  their  chil- 
dren before  they  have  arrived  at  age ;  for  until 
they  are  of  age  they  are  both  legally  and  morally 
under  the  authority  and  government  of  their  par- 
ents, who  are  responsible  for  them.  Hence  the 
child  should  recognize  and  submit  to  tfleir  au- 
thority. But  this  right  to  the  use  of  coercive 
measures  extends  only  to  the  prevention  of  un- 
happy marriages,  —  not  to  the  forming  of  what 
the  parents  may  regard  happy  alliances,  against 


270  THE    CHRISTIAN    BOMB. 

the  will  of  the  child.    No  parent  Las  the  right  to 
compel  a  child  under  age  to  many,  because  the 

marriage  alliance  implies  the  age  and  free  choice 
of  the  child. 

But  when  the  child  reaches  legal  maturity,  the 
coercive  authority  of  the  parent  ceases.  His  in- 
terposition then  should  not  involve  coercive,  but 
persuasive  measures.  Then  a  mere  mechanical 
prevention  of  an  unhappy  marriage  would  have 
no  good  moral  effect,  but  would  be  productive  of 
great  evil,  inasmuch  as  it  not  only  involves  pa- 
rental despotism,  but  the  restriction  pf  a  manifest 
and  conceded  right  of  the  child.  It  would  de- 
stroy the  sense  of  personal  dignity  and  responsi- 
bility. 

Persuasive  measures  will  then  accomplish  more 
than  all  the  efforts  of  the  parent  to  prevent  an  un- 
happy union,  by  threats  of  disinheritance  and  ex- 
pulsion from  home.  In  this  way  parents  often 
extend  their  interference  to  most  unreasonable 
extremes,  and  to  the  great  detriment  of  the  in- 
terests and  happiness  of  their  children;  while  at? 
the  sniiie  time  they  often  bring  disgrace  and  mis- 
ery upon  their  own  heads  and  home.  They  set 
themselves  up  as  the  choosers  of  companions  for 
their  children,  presuming  that  they  should  pas- 
sively submit  to  their  selection  whatever  it  may 
1"'.  This  is  taking  away  the  free  moral  agency  of 
the  child,  making  no  account  of  his  taste,  judg- 
ment, or  affections ;  and  forming  between  him  and 
"tli*-  object  thus  ehosenamere  outward  union,  with 
no  inward  affinity. 


MATCH-MAKING.  271 

In  sucli  cases  it  most  generally  happens  that 
parents  are -prompted  by  sinister  motives  and  a 
false  pride,  as  that  of  wealth,  honor,  and  social 
position.  They  do  not  consult  the  law  of  suita- 
bility, but  that  of  availability.  They  think  that 
wealth  and  family  distinction  will  compensate 
for  the  absence  of  all  moral  and  amiable  quali- 
fies, that  if  outward  circumstances  are  favora- 
ble, there  need  not  be  inward  adaptation  of  char- 
acter. Hence  they  will  dictate  to  their  children, 
make  their  marriage  alliance  a  mere  business  mat- 
ter, and  demand  implicit  obedience  on  the  penalty 
of  expulsion  from  the  parental  home,  and  disin- 
heritance forever.  .  They  are  thus  willing  to  pros- 
titute the  domestic  peace  and  happiness  of  their 
offspring  to  the  gratification  of  their  own  sordid 
and  inordinate  lust  for  gain  and  empty  distinc- 
tion. 

AVho  does  not  perceive  and  acknowledge  the 
evil  of  such  a  course  ?  It  involves  unfeeling  des- 
potism on  the  one  hand,  and  a  servile  obedience 
on  the  other.  The  affections  are  abused :  the  idea 
and  sacrcdness  of  marriage  are  left  outrof  view; 
the  conditions  of  domestic  felicity  are  not  met. 
All  is  supremely  selfish ;  the  power  exercised  is 
arbitrary;  the  submission  is  slavish  and  demoral- 
izing ;  the  obedience  involuntary  and  degrading ; 
and  the  result  of  it  all  is,  an  outrage  against  na- 
ture, against  marriage,  and  against  God. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  interference  of  the  par- 
ent should  be  persuasive,  and  the  obedience  "f 
the  child,  voluntary.     The  parent  should  reason 


272  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

with  and  counsel  the  child  ;  and  seek  b}T  mild  and  i 
affectionate  means  to  secure  obedience  to  his  ad- 
vice. And  if  the  child  then  persist  in  his  own 
course,  the  parent,  we  think,  has  discharged  his 
duty,  and  the  responsibility  will  rest  upon  the 
child.  He  should  not  expel  and  disinherit  him, 
and  thus  add  the  hard-heart edness  of  the  parent  to 
the  folly  and  perversity  of  the  child.  He  should 
love  him  still,  and  seek  by  parental  tenderness  to 
alleviate  the  sad  fruits  of  filial  recklessness.  Par- 
ents should  so  train  their  children  in  the  nursery 
and  parlor,  by  instilling  in  them  correct  principles 
of  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a  companion,  as  to 
secure  them  ever  after  from  an  imprudent  choice. 
Here  is  the  place  to  begin.  Parents  too  often  omit 
this  duty,  until  alas,  it  is  too  late. 

We  have  now  seen  that  the  parent  has  no  right 
to  de-troy  the  domestic  happiness  of  a  child  by 
uniting  him  forcibly  in  wedlock  to  one  for  whom 
lie  has  no  true  affection.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
child  should  pay  due  deference  to  the  parent's 
moral  suasion,  and  seek,  if  possible,  to  follow 
his  eounWls.  "A  child,"  says  Paley,  "who  re- 
spects  his  parent's  judgment,  and  is,  as  he  ought 
to  be,  tender  of  their  happiness,  owes,  at  least, 
so  much  deference  to  their  will,  as  to  try  fairly 
and  faithfully,  in  one  case,  whether  time  and  ab- 
sence  will  not  cool  an  affection  which  they  disap- 
prove. A  tier  a  sincere  but  ineffectual  endeavor 
by  the  child,  to  accommodate  his  inclination  to 
his  parent'-  pleasure,  he  ought  not  to  suffer  in  his 
parent's  affections,  or  in  his  fortunes.     The  par- 


MATCH-MAKING. 


273 


cut,  when  he  has  reasonable  proof  of  this,  should 
acquiesce ;  at  all  events,  the  child  is  then  at  liberty 
to  provide  for  his  own  happiness." 


SECTION   II. 


FALSE   TESTS   IN    THE    SELECTION   OP   A  COMPANION   FOR    LIFE. 

Before  we  advert  to  some  of  those  bibli- 
cal principles  upon  which  parents  and  children 
should  proceed  in  the  marriage  choice,  we  shall 
take  a  negative  view  of  the  subject,  and  mention 
some  of  those  false  principles  and  considerations 
which  have  in  the  present  day  gained  a  fearful 
ascendancy  over  the  better  judgment  of  many 
professed  Christians. 

In  the  matter  of  marriage,  too  many  are  influ- 
enced by  the  pomp  and  parade  of  the  mere  out- 
ward. The  glitter  of  gold,  the  smile  of  beauty, 
and  the  array  of  titled  distinction  and  cinu in- 
stance, act  like  a  charm  upon  the  feelings  and 
sentiments  of  many  well-meaning  parents  and 
children.  But  it  is  not  all  gold  that  glitters. 
We  must  not  think  that  those  are  happy  in 
their  marriage  union,  because  they  are  obsequi- 
ous in  their  attentions  to  each  other,  and  live 
*12 


274  THE    C1IIUSTIAN    IIOME. 

together  in  splendor,  overloaded  with  fashionable 
congratulations.  We  cannot  determine  the  char- 
acter  of  a  marriage  from  its  pomp  and  pageantry* 
"We  rather  determine  the  many  unhappy  matches 
from  the  false  principles  upon  which  the  parties 
acted  in  making  choice  of  each  other.  What  are 
some  of  these  ?    We  answer — 

1.  The  manner  of  paying  addresses  involves  a 
false  principle  of  procedure.  These  are"  either 
too  long  or  too  short,  and  paid  in  an  improper 
spirit  and  manner.  There  are  too  much  flirta- 
tion and  romance  connected  with  them.  The 
religious  element  is  not  taken  up  and  consid- 
ered. They  do  not  involve  the  true  idea  of 
preparation,  but  have  an  air  of  mere  sentiment- 
al ism  about  them.  The  object  in  view  is  not 
fully  seen.  The  most  reprehensible  motives  and 
the  most  shocking  thoughtlessness  pervade  them 
throughout.  These  addresses  carry  with  them  an 
air  of  trifling,  a  want  of  seriousness  and  frank- 
ness,  which  betrays  the  absence  of  all  sense  of 
responsibility,  and  of  all  proper  views  of  the  sa- 
credness  of  marriage  and  of  its  momentous  con- 
sequences both  for  time  and  for  eternity. 

2.  The  habit  of  match-making  involves  a  false 
principle.  This  we  see  more  fully  among  the 
higher  classes  of  society.  It  is  the  work  of  de- 
sfgning  and  interested  persons,  who,  for  self-inter- 
est, intrude  their  unwelcome  interposition.  Its 
whole  procedure  implies  that  marriage  is  simply 
a  legal  matte)-,  a  piece  of  business  policy,  a  do- 
mestic speculation.     It  strikes  out  the  great  law 


MATCH-MAKING. 


275 


of  mutual,  moral  love,  and  personal  adaptation. 
It  makes  marriage,  artificial,  and  apprehends  it  as 
only  a  mechanical  copartnership  of  interest  and 
life.  It  is  sinister  in  spirit,  and  selfish  in  the  end. 
Many  are  prompted  from  motives  of  novelty  to 
make  matches  among  their  friends.  All  their 
schemes  tend  to  wrest  from  the  parties  inter- 
ested all  true  judgment,  and  dispassionate  con- 
sideration. They  are  deceived  by  base  misrep- 
resentation, allured  by  over-wrought  pictures  of 
conjugal  felicity,  so  that  when  the  marriage  is 
consummated,  they  soon  find  their  golden  dreams 
vanish  away,  and  with  them,  their  hopes  and  their 
happiness  forever. 

But  there  arc  not  only  personal  match-mak- 
ers, in  the  form  of  tyrannical  fathers,  sentimental 
mothers,  amorous  grandmothers,  and  obsequious 
friends  ;  but  also  book  match-makers,  in  the  form 
of  love-siek  tales  and  poetry,  containing  Eugene- 
Aram  adventures,  and  scrapes  of  languishing  girls 
with  titled  swains  running  oft*,  calculated  to  heat 
the  youthful  imagination,  distort  the  pictures  of 
fancy,  giving  to  marriage  the  air  of  a  romantic 
adventure,  and  throwing  over  it  a  gaudy  drapery, 
leading  the  young  into  a  world  of  dreams  and 
nonentities,  where  all  is  but  a  bubble  of  varie- 
gated colors  and  fantastic  forms,  which  explodes 
before  them  as  booh  as  it  is  touched  by  the  finger 
of  reality  and  experience. 

These  are  the  most  dangerous  match-makers. 
Their  Bister  companions  in  this  evil  are,  the  ball- 
room, the  giddy  dance  and  masquerade,  the  fash- 


2TG  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

ionablc  wine-cup,  and  the  costly  apparel.  Let  mo 
affectionately  exhort  the  members  of  the  Christian 
home  to  keep  all  these  at  a  distance.  Touch  not, 
taste  not,  handle  not!  They  will  poison  the  spirit 
and  the  affections,  and  encircle  you  with  a  viper's 
coil  from  which  there  is  no  hope  of  escape.  Hero 
parents  have  a  right,  and  it  is  their  duty,  to  inter- 
fere. They  can  do  so  effectually  by  not  allowing 
sucli  filthy  match-making  intruders  to  pass  the 
threshold  of  their  homes.  ~\\ nat  can  you  expect 
out  an  unhappy  marriage,  if  you  permit  your  sons 
and  daughters  to  spend  their  time  in  converse  with 
love-sick  tales  and  languishing  swains  ?  They  will 
become  love-sick,  too,  and  long  for  marriage  with 
one  who  is  like  the  hero  of  their  last-read  romance. 
Perhaps  they  will  not  think  their  matrimonial  de- 
Imt  sufficiently  flavored  with  romantic  essence,  un- 
less tiny  run  off  with  some  self-constituted  count, 
or  at  least  with  their  papa's  Irish  groom  ! 

3.  We  might  advert,  finally,  to  some  of  those 
false  influences  which  are  frequently  brought  to 
bear  upon  the  children's  choice  of  a  companion 
for  life.  The  term  smitten  is  here  significant 
and  deserves  our  serious  consideration.  It  car- 
ries in  its  pregnant  meaning  the  evidence  of  a 
spurious  feeling,  and  a  false  foundation  of  love 
ami  union.  Be  it  remembered  that  there  must 
always  be  something  to  smite  one.  We  may 
be  -mitten  by  a  scoundrel,  or  by  something  un- 
worthy our  affections.  Empty  titles  and  mus- 
taches often  smite  the  susceptible  young.  Some- 
times the  heart  is  smitten  by  a  pretty  face  and 


MATCH-MAKING.  277 

form ;  and  sometimes  by  a  rod  of  gold.  The 
simple  fact  that  we  are  smitten  is  not  enough; 
we  should  know  who  or  what  it  is  that  smites  us. 
"When  we  are  drawn  to  each  oilier,  it  should  he  by 
a  true  cord,  and  by  an  influence  which  binds  and 
cements  for  life.  The  influence  of  mere  outward 
beauty  is  a  false  one.  Those  who  are  smitten  by 
it,  and  drawn  thus  into  a  matrimonial  union  by  an 
interest  which  is  but  skin-deep,  and  which  may 
fade  like  the  morning  flower,  arc  allured  by  a  daz- 
zling meteor,  by  a  mere  bubble,  beautifully  formed 
and  colored,  but  empty  within.  It  may  dazzle  the 
eye,  but  it  blinds  us  to  all  its  blemishes  and  in- 
ward infirmities.  It  is  deceptive.  Often  beneath 
its  gaudy  veil  there  lies  the  viper,  ready  to  poison 
all  the  sweets  of  home-life,  and  Cause  its  victim  to 
lament  over  his  folly  with  bitter  tears  and  heart- 
burning remorse.  How  soon  may  beauty  fade  ; 
and  what  then,  if  it  was  the  only  basis  of  your 
marriage  choice?  The  union  which  rested  upon 
it  must  then  be  at  least  morally  dissolved ;  and 
that  which  once  flitted  like  an  impersonated  charm 
before  your  admiring  eye,  now  becomes  an  object 
of  disgust  and  a  source  of  misery. 

To  fall  in  love,  therefore,  with  mere  outward 
beauty  is,  to  dandle  with  a  doll,  to  fawn  upon  a 
picture,  to  rest  your  hopes  upon  a  plaything,  to 
pursue  a  phantom  which,  as  soon  as  you  embrace 
it,  may  vanish  into  nothing.  Look  not  to  external 
beauty  alone  ;  but  also  to  the  ornaments  of  an  in- 
ward spirit,  of  a  noble  mind,  and  an  amiable  and 
pious  heart.      "If,"  says  the  Rev.  II.  JIarbaugh, 


278  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

"you  will  be  foolish,  follow  the  gilded  butterfly  of 
beauty,  drive  it  a  long  chase;  it  will  land  you  at 
last  at  sonu'  stagnant  mud-pond  of  the  highway." 

Neither  is  impulsive  pas-ion  a  true  basis  of  mar- 
riage. This  is  foiling  in  love  at  first  sight,  which 
often  proves  to  be  a  very  dangerous  and  degrad- 
ing fall, — a  fall  from. the  clouds  to  the  clods,  pro- 
ducing both  humiliation  and  misery.  It  is  indeed 
a  fearful  leap, — a  leap  without  judgment  or  fore- 
thought ;  and,  therefore,  a  leap  in  the  dark.  It  is 
too  precipitate,  and  shows  the  infatuation  of  the 
victim.  Falling  in  love  is  not  always  falling  in 
the  embraces  of  domestic  felicity.  Such  leaping 
is  ah  act  of  intoxication.  The  drunkard,  falling 
in  the  mire,  often  thinks  that  he  is  embracing  his 
best  friend,  whereas  it  is  but  descending  to  fellow- 
ship with  the  swine.  It  is  blind  love,  which  is  no 
love,  but  passion  without  reason.  It  is  crazy,  fit- 
ful, Stormy,  raising  the  feelings  up  to  boiling  point, 
and  bringing  the  affections  under  the  influence  of 
the  high-pressure  system.  Consequently  il  is  rav- 
ing, frothy,  of  a  mushroom  growth,  making  mere 
hubbies,  and  completing  its  work  in  an  evapora- 
tion of  all  that  it  operated  upon,  passing  away  like 
the  morning  cloud  and  the  early  dew. 

True  love  18  very  different.  It  is  substantial, 
reasonable,  moral,  acting  according  to  law,  tem- 
perate in  all  things,  keeping  the  heart  from  ex- 
tremes, permanent,  and  based  upon  principle. 
Passion,  without  love,  may  keep  you  in  a  state 
of  pleasurable  intoxication  until  the  knot  is  tied, 
when  you  will  Boon  get  sober  again,  only  to  sec, 


MATCH-MAKING. 


279 


however,  your  folly  and  to  contemplate  the  height 
from  which  you  have  fallen,  and  then,  with  the 
recklessness  of  sullen  despair,  to  pass"  over  into 
the  opposite  extreme  of  stoical  indifference  and 
misery.  All  emotions  are  transient,  and  hence  no 
proper  standard  of  judgment  in  the  serious  matter 
of  a  marriage  choice.  The  heart,  unguided  hy 
the  head,  is,  in  its  emotions,  like  the  flaming  me- 
teor that  passes  in  its  rapid,  fiery  train  across  the 
heavens.  It  flames  only  for  a  time,  and  soon 
passes  away,  leaving  the  heavens  in  greater  dark- 
ness than  hefore. 

Neither  is  wealth  a  true  basis  for  the  marriage 
choice.  "The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  all 
evil ;"  and  when  it  is  the  primary  desideratum  in 
marriage,  it  acts  like  a  canker-worm  upon  domes- 
tic peace  and  happiness.  With  too  many  in  this 
day  of  money-making,  marriage  is  but  a  pecunia- 
ry speculation,  a  mere  gold  and  silver  affair ;  and 
their  match-making  is  but  a  money-making,  that 
is,  money  makes  the  match.  Many  parents  (but 
we  don't  call  such  Christians,)  sacrifice  their  chil- 
dren upon  the  altar  of  mammon,  and  prostitute 
their  earthly  and  eternal  happiness  to  their  love 
of  filthy  lucre. 

Fatal  mistake  !  "Will  money  make  your  chil- 
dren happy  ?  Is  it  for  money  you  have  them  led 
to  the  bridal  altar?  Ah!  that  sordid  dust  may 
cover  the  grave  of  their  fondest  hopes  and  connu- 
bial felicity.  "Wed  not  your  children  to  mere  dol- 
lars and  (-ruts.  The  hand  that  holds  a  purse  and 
shakes  it  before  you  for  your  child,  may  hold  also  a 


280  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

dagger  for  both  the  child  and  the  parent.  "Look 
not  only  for  riches,  lost  thou  be  mated  with  mis- 
ery."  Wealth  La  good  in  ita  place,  and  we  should 
not  object  to  it,  other  things  being  equal.  But  it 
never  was  nor  can  be  good  as  an  Inducement  to 
marry.  "What  a  miserable  policy  it  is,  to  make 
it  the  test  of  a  proper  match!  "Do  not  make 
the  metals  of  earth  the  cord  of  the  marriage 
tie."  They  are  too  brittle  in  their  nature  to 
do  so.  They  take  to  themselves  wings  and  fly 
away.  The  fine  gold  becomes  dim ;  their  cords 
are  like  ropes  of  glass-sand, — 

"Like  the  spider's  most  attenuated  thread, 
They  break  at  every  breeze." 

Rank  also  is  a  false  standard  of  judgment  in 
the  forming  of  a  marriage  alliance.  Many  look 
only  to  position  in  society,  make  it  everything, 
and  think  thai  acknowledged  social  distinction 
will  compensate  for  the  want  of  all  other  inter- 
ests. While  there  should  be  a  social  adaptation 
of  character,  and  while  you  should — 

"  Be  joined  to  thy  equal  in  rank,  or  the  foot  of  pride  will  kick 
at  thee," 

yel  there  is  nothing  to  justify  marrying  a  person 
because  of  his  or  her  social  position.  The  evils 
of  this  may  be  seen  in  the  first  classes  of  English 
society,  where  rank  is  mechanical,  and  where  law 
forbids  a  trespass  upon  its  bastard  prerogatives; 
and  as  a  consequence,  relatives  intermarry,  until 
their  descendants  have  degenerated  into  complete 


MATCH-MAKING. 


281 


physical  and  mental  imbecility.  Such  nepotism 
as  this  is  replete  with  untold  disaster  both  in  the 
family  and  in  the  state.  Too  many  in  our  demo- 
cratic country  ape  this,  look  to  rank,  and  are  blind 
to  all  things  else.  The  fruits  of  this  are  Been  in 
that  codfisVaristoeracy  which  floats  with  self-in- 
flated importance  upon  the  troubled  waters  of  so- 
ciety, causing  too  many  of  the  little  fish  to  float 
after  them,  until  they  land  themselves  in  the  deep 
and  muddy  waters  of  domestic  ruin. 


SECTION   III. 

TRUE   TESTS   IN   THE    SELECTION    OF  A   COMPANION    FOR    LIFE. 

Having  considered  some  of  the  false  standards 
of  judgment  in  the  choice  of  a  companion  for  life, 
we  now  revert  to  those  true  tests  which  are  given 
us  in  the  Word  of  God.  There  we  have  the  insti- 
tution and  true  idea  of  marriage,  and  the  princi- 
ples upon  which  we  should  proceed  in  making  the 
marriage  choice. 

We  are  taught  in  the  holy  scriptures,  the  pri- 
mary importance  of  judicious  views  of  the  nature 
and  responsibilities  of  the  marriage  institution  it- 
self. Wc  should  apprehend  it,  not  from  its  mere 
worldly  standpoint,  not  as  a  simple  legal  alliance, 
not  only  as  a  scheme  for  temporal  welfare  and  hap- 


282  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

piness,  Imt  as  a  divine  institute,  a  religious  alliance, 
involving  moral  responsibilities,  and  momentous 
consequence^  for  eternity  as  well  as  for  time,  for 
soul  as  well  as  for  body.  We  are  commanded  to 
look  to  its  religious  elements  and  duties;  and  to 
regard  it  with  that  solemnity  of  feeling  which  it 
truly  demands.  When  the  light  of  the  bridal  day 
throws  upon  the  cheek  its  brightest  colors,  even 
then  we  should  rejoice  with  trembling,  and  our 
joy  and  festivity  should  be  only  in  the  Lord. 

"Joy,  serious  and  sublime, 
Such  as  cloth  nerve  the  energies  of  prayer, 
Should  swell  the  bosom,  when  a  maiden's  hand, 
Filled  with  life's  dewy  flowerets,  girdeth  on 
That  harness  which  the  ministry  of  death 
Alone  unlooseth,  but  whose  fearful  power 
May  stamp  the  sentence  of  eternity." 

In  the  days  of  our  forefathers,  marriage  was 
thus  held  Bacred^  aa  a  divine  institution,  involving 
moral  and  religious  duties  and  responsibilities; 
and  their  celebration  of  it  was,  therefore,  a  reli- 
gious one.  They  realized  its  momentous  import, 
and  its  bearing  upon  their  future  welfare.  It  was 
not,  therefore,  without  heavings  of  deep  moral 
emotion  and  the  flow  of  tears  as  well  as  of  joyful 
spirits,  that  they  put  the  wedding  garment  on. 

"There  are  smiles  and  tears  in  that  gathering  band, 
Where  the  heart  is  pledged  with  the  trembling  hand. 
"What  trying  thoughts  in  the  bosom  swell, 
As  the  bride  bids  parents  and  home  farewell ! 
Kneel  down"  by  the  side  of  the  tearful  fair, 
And  strengthen  the  perilous  hour  with  prayer  !" 


MATCH-MAKING.  283 

True  love  in  each,  and  reciprocated  by  eacTi,  must 
determine  the  marriage  choice.  The  marriage  of 
children  should  not  he  forced.  Mutual  love  is  the 
basis  of  a  proper  union,  because  marriage  is  a  vol- 
untary compact.  When  parents,  therefore,  foree 
their  children  into  an  alliance,  they  usurp  their 
undoubted  natural  and  religious  rights.  Hence 
there  should  be  no  must,  where  there  is  no  will,  on 
the  part  of  the  child.  That  choice  which  is  made 
upon  any  other  than  reciprocated  affection,  is  an 
unreasonable  and  irreligious  one.  "  Parents  have 
no  right,"  says  Paley,  "to  urge  their  children 
upon  marriage  to  which  they  are  averse;"  "add 
to  this,"  says  he,  "that  compulsion  in  marriage 
necessarily  leads  to  prevarication ;  as  the  reluc- 
tant party  promises  an  affection,  which  neither  ex- 
ists, nor  is  expected  to  take  place."  To  proceed 
to  marriage,  therefore  in  the  face  of  absolute  dis- 
like and  revulsion,  is  irrational  and  sinful. 

As-  true,  mutual  love  is  the  basis  of  marriage,  so 
also  should  it  be  a  standard  of  our  judgment  in 
the  marriage  choice.  Without  it,  neither  beauty, 
wealth  nor  rank  will  make  home  happy.  True 
love  should  be  such  as  is  upheld  in  scripture.  It 
is  above  mere  passion.  It  never  iailcth.  It  is 
life-like  and  never  dies  out.  It  is  an  evergreen 
in  the  bosom  of  home.  It  has  moral  stamina,  is 
regulated  by  moral  law,  has  a  moral  end,  contains 
moral  principle,  and  rises  superior  to  mere  pru- 
dential considerations.  It  is  more  than  mere  feel- 
ing, or  emotion;  it  is  not  blind,  but  rational,  and 
above  deception,  having  its  ground  in  our  moral 


284  THE   CHRISTIAN7    HOME. 

and  religious  nature.  It  extends  to  tin-  whole  per- 
son, to  body,  mind,  and  spirit,  t<»  the  character  as 
well  as  to  the  face  and  form.  It  is  tempered  with 
respect,  yea,  vitalized,  purified,  directed  and  ele- 
vated by  true  piety.  Such  love  alone  will  survive 
the  charms  and  allurements  of  novelty,  the  fasci- 
nations of  sense,  the  ravages  of  disease  and  time, 
and  will  receive  the  sanction  of  heaven. 

Mutual  adaption  of  character  and  position  is 
another  scripture  standard  of  judgment.  Is  that 
person  suited  for  me?  "Will  that  character  make 
my  home  happy?  Could  I  be  happy  with  such  an 
one  ?  Are  we  congenial  in  spirit,  sentiment,  prin- 
ciple, cultivation,  education,  morals  and  religion  ? 
Can  we  sympathize  and  work  harmoniously  to- 
gether in  mind  and  heart  and  will  and  taste?  Are 
we  complements!  to  each  other?  These  are  ques- 
tions of  far  greater  importance  than  the  question 
of  wealth,  of  beauty,  or  of  rank. 

Fitness  of  circumstances,  means,  and  age  should 
be  also  considered.  Am  I  able  to  supports  fam- 
ily?     Can   I   discharge  the  duties  of  a  household? 

Where  there  is  ignorance  of  household  duties,  in- 
dolence, the  want  of  any  visible  means  of  sup- 
porting a  family,  no  trade,  no  education,  no  en- 
ergy, and  no  prospects,  there  is  no  reason  to  think 
there  can  be  a  proper  marriage.  Thus,  then,  mu- 
tual love,  adaptation  of  character,  of  means,  of  cir- 
cumstances, of  position,  and  of  age,  should  be  con- 
sidered, in  the  formation  of  a  marriage  alliance. 

But  the  standard  of  judgment  to  which  the  scrip- 
tures especially  direct  our  attention  is,  that  of  reli- 


MATCH-MAKING. 


gious  equality,  or  spiritual  adaptation.     "Be  not 
unequally  yoked  together  with  unbelievers.      The 
positive  command  here  is,  that  Christians  should 
marry  only  in  the  Lord.     Here  is  a  test  in  the  se- 
lection of  a  companion  for  life,  from  which  nei- 
ther parents  nor  children  should  ever  depart      It 
evidently  forbids  a  matrimonial  union  with  those 
who  have  no  sympathy  with  religion.    A\  e  should 
make  more  account  of  religious  equality  than  ot 
equality  of  rank  and  wealth.    Is  not  true  piety  of 
more  importance  than  education,  affluence  or  so- 
cial distinction  ?    When  husband  and  wife  are  un- 
equally yoked  together  in  soul  and  grace,  their 
home  must  suffer  spiritually  as  well  as  temporal- 
ly     The  performance  of  religious  duties  and  the 
enjoyment  of  religious  privileges,  will  be  impossi- 
ble     The  unbeliever  will  discourage,  oppose,  and 
often  ridicule,  the  pious  efforts  of  the  believer. 
Partiality  will  be  produced,  and  godliness  will  de- 
cline ;  for,  says  Peter,  unless  we  dwell  as  heirs  to- 
gether of  the  grace  of  life,  our  prayers  will  be 
hindered.     The  pious  one  cannot  rule  in  such  a 
home      Thus  divided  and  striving  with  each  other, 
their  house  mUst  fall.     Where  one  draws  heaven- 
ward  and  the  other  hellward,  opposite  attractions 
will  be  presented,  and  the  believer  will  find  con- 
stant obstructions  to  growth  in  grace,  to  the  dis- 
charge of  parental  duty,  and  to  the  cultivation  of 
Christian  graces  in  the  heart.     How  can  the  un- 
believer return,  like  David,  to  bless  his  household t 
HOW  can  he  bring  up  his  children  in  the  nurture 
and  admonition  of  the  Lord  ?     Can  he  be  the  head 


286  TEE   CHRISTIAN    UOME. 

of  a  Christian  home?  And,  tell  me,  does  the 
true  Christian  desire  any  other  than  a  Christian 
home?  "How  can  two  walk  together,  except 
they  be  agreed?"  And  are  you,  then,  in  your 
marriage,  agreed  to  walk  with  the  unbeliever  in 
the  broad  road  of  sin  and  death  ?  You  are  not, 
if  you  are  a  true  Christian  ! 

We  sec,  therefore,  the  importance  of  a  rigid 
Adherence  to  the  scripture  standard,  "  Be  not  un- 
equally yoked  together  with  unbelievers."  It  is 
even  desirable  that  husband  and  wife  belong  to 
the  same  branch  of  the  church,  that  they  may 
walk  together  on  the  sabbath  to  the  house  of 
God.  There  is  indeed  something  repugnant  to 
the  feelings  of  a  Christian  to  see  the  husband 
go  in  one  direction  to  worship,  and  the  wife  in 
another.  They  cannot  be  thus  divided,  without 
serious  injury  to  the  religious  interests  of  their 
family,  as  well  as  of  their  own  souls.  It  is  impos- 
sible for  them  to  train  up  their  children  success- 
fully when  they  are  separated  by  denominational 
differences.  It  is  a  matter  of  very  common  ob- 
servation that  when  persons  thus  divided,  marry, 
the  one  or  the  other  suffers  in  religious  interest. 
From  these  and  other  considerations,  we  think  it 
is  expedient  to  marry,  if  possible,  within  the  pales 
of  our  own  branch  of  the  church.  Then,  being 
agreed,  they  can  walk  together  "with  one  mind 
and  one  purpose. 

But  how  much  more  important  that  they  be 
united  in  their  pilgrim  walk  to  eternity, — united 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  a  common  life  and 


MATCH-MAKING.  287 

faith  and  hope !  "We  believe  that  Christiana 
commit  a  sin  when  they  violate  this  law  of  re- 
ligious equality,  and  unite  themselves  in  mat- 
rimony with  those  who  pay  no  regard  to  reli- 
gion. Who  can  estimate  the  peril  of  that  home 
in  which  one  of  its  members  is  walking  in  the 
narrow  way  to  heaven,  while  the  other  one  is  trav- 
eling in  the  broad  road  to  perdition  !  "Whom, 
think  3*011,  will  the  children  follow?  Let  the  sad 
experience  of  a  thousand  homes  respond.  Let  the 
blighted  hopes  and  the  unrequited  affections  of 
the  pious  wife,  reply.  Let  those  children  'whose 
infamy  and  wretchedness  have  broken  the  devout 
mother's  heart,  or  brought  the  gray  hairs  of  the 
pious  father  down  with  sorrow  to  the  grave,  speak 
forth  the  answer.  It  will  show  the  importance  of 
the  scripture  rule  before  us,  and  will  declare  the 
sin  of  violating  that  rule. 

And  does  not,  therefore,  a  terrible  judgment,  ac- 
company that  indiscriminate  matrimonial  union 
with  the  unbelieving  world,  of  which  so  many 
Christians,  in  the  present  day,  are  guilty?  Par- 
ents encourage  their  pious  children  to  marry  un- 
believers, though  they  are  well  aware  that  such 
unholy  mixtures  are  expressly  forbidden,  and  that 
spiritual  harmony  is  essential  to  their  happiness. 
"She  is  at  liberty  to  be  married  to  whom  she 
will,  only  in  the  Lord !"  Those  who  violate  this 
cardinal  law  of  marriage,  must  expect  to  suffer 
the  penalties  attached  to  it.  History  is  the  rec- 
ord of  these.  The  disappointed  hopes,  and  the 
miseries  of  unnumbered  homes  speak  forth  their 


28S  Till:   OH&ISTIAN   HOME. 

execution.  This  great  Bcripture  law  has  its  foun- 
dation in  the  very  nature  of  marriage  itself.  If 
marriage  involves  tlie  law  of  spiritual  harmony; 
if,  in  the  language  of  the  Roman  law,  it  is  "  the 
union  of  a  man  and  woman,  constituting  an  united 
habitual  course  of  life,  never  to  be  separated  ;"  if 
it  is  a  partnership  of  the  whole  life,  —  a  mutual 
Bearing  in  all  rights,  human  and  divine;  if  they 
are  one  flesh,  —  one  in  all  the  elements  of  their 
moral  being,  as  Christ  and  His  church  are  one; 
if  it  is  a  mystery  of  man's  being,  antecedent  to 
all  human  law;  if,  in  a  word,  man  and  woman  in 
marriage,  are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh  ;  and 
if  the  oneness  of  our  nature  is  framed  of  the  body, 
the  soul,  and  the  spirit,  then  is  it  not  plain  that 
when  two  persons  marry,  who  possess  no  spiritual 
fitness  for,  or  harmony  with,  each  other,  they  vio- 
late the  fundamental  law  of  wedlock;  and  their 
marriage  cannot  meet  the  scripture  conception  of 
matrimonial  union  or  oneness.  There  will  be  no 
adaptation  of  the  whole  nature  for  each  other; 
they  will  not  appreciate  the  sacred  mysteriousness 
of  marriage;  instead  of  the  moral  and  religious 
development  of  the  spiritual  nature,  there  will  be 
the  evolution  of  seltishness  and  sensuality  as  the 
Leading  motives  of  domestic  life.  We  see,  then, 
that  the  Christian  cannot  with  impunity,  violate 
the  scripture  law,  "Be  not  unequally  yoked  with 
unbelievers." 

Shall  the  Christian  parent  and  child  disregard 
this  prohibition  of  God?  "Will  you  ridicule 
this  fundamental  principle  of  Christian  marriage? 


MATCH-MAKING.  289 

~Wil]  the  children  of  God  not  hesitate  to  marry 
the  children  of  the  devil  ?  Gan  these  walk  to- 
gether in  domestic  union  and  harmony?  Can 
saint  and  sinner  he  of  one  mind,  one  spirit,  one 
life,  one  hope,  one  interest?  Gan  the  children  of 
the  light  and  the  children  of  darkness,  opposite 
in  character  and  in  their  apprehension  of  things, 
become  flesh  of  each  other's  flesh,  and  by  the  force 
of  their  blended  light  and  darkness  shed  around 
their  home-fireside  the  cheerfulness  of  a  mutual 
love,  of  a  common  life  and  hope,  and  of  a  pro- 
gressive spiritual  work  ? 

Parents  !  it  is  your  right  and  duty  to  interfere 
when  your  children  violate  this  law.  Bring  them 
up  from  infancy  to  respect  it.  In  the  parlor,  train 
them  to  appreciate  its  religious  importance.  Show 
them  that  God  will  visit  the  iniquity  of  their  de- 
parture from  it,  unto  the  third  and  fourth  genera' 
tion.  You  are  stimulated  to  do  so  by  the  divine 
promise  that  when  they  grow  old,  they  will  not 
depart  from  it. 

Such  unequal  matches  are  not  made  in  heaven. 
"God's  hand  is  over  such  matches,  not  in  them." 
"AYhat fellowship  hath  light  with  darkness?"  If 
love,  in  Christian  marriages,  is  holy  and  includes 
the  religious  element,  then  it  is  evident  that  the 
Christian  alliance  with  one  between  whom  and 
himself  there  is  no  religious  affinity  whatever,  is 
not  only  an  outrage  against  the  marriage  insti- 
tution, but  also  exposes  his  home  to  the  curse  of 
God,  making  it  a  Babel  of  coufusiou  and  of  moral 
antipathies. 
13 


200 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


Both  the  old  and  the  new  testaments  give  ex- 
plicit testimony  to  the  law  of  spiritual  harmony 
in  marriage.  Tims  the  law  of  Moses  forbid  the 
children  of  Israel  to  intermarry  among  heathen 
nations.  "Neither  shaft  thou  make  marriages 
-with  them;  thy  daughter  thou  shaft  not  give 
unto  his  son,  nor  his  daughter  slialt  thou  take 
unto  thy  son." — Dcut.  vii.,  8.  Abraham  obeyed 
this  law  in  the  part  he  took  in  the  marriage  of 
his  son  Isaac,  as  recorded  in  the  twenty-fourth 
chapter  of  G-enesis.  His  obedience  was  repro- 
duced in  Isaac  and  Rebecca,  who  manifested  the 
same  desire,  and  took  the  same  care  that  Jacob 
should  take  a  wife  from  among  the  covenant 
people  of  God.  See  twenty-eighth  chapter  of 
G-enesis. 

The  evil  consequences  of  the  violation  of  this 
law  may  be  seen  in  the  history  of  Solomon, — 
i.  KingS,  chap.  11  ;  also  in  the  case  mentioned  in 
the  10th  chap. ;  and  in  Nehemiah,  chap.  13,  Paul 
upholds  this  law  when  he  exhorts  the  Corinthians 
to  marry  "only  in  the  Lord."  Reason  itself  ad- 
vocates this  law.  The  true  Christian  labors  for 
heaven  and  walks  in  the  path  of  the  just;  the 
unbelieving  labor  for  earth,  mind  only  the  things 
of  tins  world,  and  walk  in  the  broad  road  to  ruin. 
Can  these  now  walk  together,  live  in  harmony, 
when  bo  widely  different  in  spirit,  in  their  aims 
and  pursuits  ?  "  What  fellowship  hath  righteous- 
ness with  unrighteousness?  What  part  hath  lie 
that  believeth  with  an  infidel?  And  what  agree- 
ment  hath  the  temple  of  God  with  idols?  for  ye 


MATCH-MAKING.  291 

are  the  temple  of  the  living  God ;  as  God  hath 
said,  I  will  dwell  in  them;  and  I  will  be  their 
God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people.  Wherefore 
come  out  from  among  them,  and  be  ye  separate, 
saith  the  Lord,  and  touch  not  the  unclean  thing; 
and  I  will  receive  you,  and  will  be  a  father  unto 
you,  and  ye  shall  be  my  sons  and  daughters." 

The  primitive  Christians  developed  this  law  in 
their  families.  They  forbade  marriage  with  Jews, 
Pagans,  Mohammedans,  and  ungodly  persons. 
With  them,  piety  was  the  first  desideratum  in 
marriage.  The  sense  of  the  Christian  church  lias 
ever  been  against  religious  inequality  in  marriage. 
It  has  always  been  felt  to  be  detrimental  to  per- 
sonal piety  and  to  the  general  interests  of  Chris- 
tianity. It  limits  and  neutralizes  the  influence 
of  the  church,  brings  overwhelming  temptations 
to  lukewarmness  in  family  religion,  and  is,  in  a 
word,  in  almost  every  instance,  the  fruitful  cause 
of  spiritual  declension  wherever  it  is  practiced. 

Let  me,  then,  exhort  you  to  marry  only  in  the 
Lord.  Such  an  union  will  be  blessed.  Daughter 
of  Zion !  marry  such  a  man  as  will,  like  David, 
return  to  bless  his  household.  Son  of  the  Chris- 
tian home!  marry  no  woman  who  has  not  in  her 
heart  the  casket  of  piety.  Make  this  your  stand- 
ard ;  and  your  home  shall  be  a  happy,  as  well  as 
a  holy  home,  and 

"  In  the  blissful  vision,  each  shall  share 
As  much  of  glory  as  his  soul  can  bear  !  " 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

THE    CHILDREN'S    PATRIMONY. 

"  Give  me  enough,  saith  wisdom  ;  for  he  feareth  to  ask  for 
more  ; 

And  that  by  the  sweat  of  my  brow,  addeth  stout-hearted  in- 
dependence ; 

Give  me  enough,  and  not  less  ;  for  want  is  leagued  with  the 
tempter  ; 

Poverty  shall  make  a  man  desperate,  and  hurry  him  ruthless 
into  crime  ; 

Give  me  enough,  and  not  more,  saving  for  the  children  of 
custn 

Wealth  oftentimes  killeth,  where  want  but  hindereth  the 
budding." 

Tin:  children's  patrimony  is  ;i  vital  subject.  It 
involves  the  great  question,  what  should  Christian 
parents  Leave  to  their  children  as  a  true  inherit- 
ance tVoin  the  Christian  home?  We  shall  return 
Inn  a  very  brief  and  genera]  answer. 

The  idea  of  the  home-inheritance  is  generally 
confined  to  the  amount  of  wealth  wnich  descends 
from  the  parenl  to  the  child.  And  this  is  indeed 
too  oi'leii  the  only  inheritance  of  which  children 
can  boast.  Many  parents,  who  even  claim  to  he 
Christians,  enslave  both  themselves  and  their  fam- 


the  children's  patrimony.  293 

ilies,  to  secure  for  their  offspring  a  large  pecun- 
iary patrimony.  They  prostitute  every  thing  else 
to  this.  And  hence  it  often  happens  that  the 
greatest  money-inheritance  becomes  the  children's 
greatest  curse,  running  them  into  all  the  wild  and 
immoral  excesses  of  prodigality ;  and  ending  in 
abject  poverty,  licentiousness,  and  disgrace;  or 
perhaps  making  them  like  their  deluded  parents, 
penurious,  covetous,  and  contracted  in  all  their 
views  and  sentiments. 

AVe  think,  therefore,  that  the  children's  patri- 
mony should  be  more  than  gold  and  silver.  This 
may  pamper  the  body,  but  will  afford  no  food  for 
the  mind  and  spirit.  We  do  not  mean  by  these 
remarks,  that  their  patrimony  should  not  include 
wealth.  On  the  other  hand,  we  believe  that  par- 
ents should  make  pecuniary  provision  for  them, 
that  they  may  not  begin  life  totally  destitute. 
But  we  mean,  that  when  this  is  the  only  patri- 
mony they  receive,  it  often  proves  a  curse,  be- 
cause it  tends  to  destroy  their  sympathy  with 
higher  interests,  exposes  them  to  the  uncertainties 
of  wealth,  and  makes  them  dependent  upon  that 
alone.  If  it  should  elude  their  grasp,  all  is  gone, 
and  they  become  poor  and  helpless  indeed. 

What,  therefore,  besides  wealth,  should  be  the 
children's  patrimony  from  the  Christian  home? 
We  briefly  answer. 

1.  A  eood  character.  This  is  more  valuable 
than  wealth  ;  lor  a  good  name  is  rather  to  he  cho- 
sen than  great  riches.  This  character  should  be 
physical,  intellectual,  and  moral.     Give  your  clnl- 


204  TIIE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

dren  the  boon  of  good  health  by  a  proper  train- 
in--  to  exercise  :m<l  industry.  Transmit  to  them 
the  patrimony  of  good  physical  habits  by  educat- 
ing their  bodies,  and  developing  their  material 
existence  according  to  the  principles  of  natural 
law.  Develop  their  intellectual  faculties,  and  en- 
rich them  with  the  treasures  of  knowledge.  Give 
character  to  their  minds  as  well  as  to  their  bodies  ; 
and  they  will  be  blessed  with  an  intellectual  dowry 
which  cannot  be  taken  from  them,  and  which  will 
bring  them  an  adequate  recompense.  Give  to 
your  children  the  patrimony  of  good  and  just 
principles.  Train  the  heart  to  good  morals ;  till 
it  with  the  treasures  of  virtue,  of  truth,  of  justice 
and  of  honor.  Give  it  moral  stamina.  Educate 
the  moral  sense  of  your  children.  Direct  the  un- 
folding powers  of  their  conscience;  in  a  word, 
develop  their  moral  faculties,  and  supply  them 
with  appropriate  nutriment;  mould  their  will; 
cultivate  their  emotions;  rule  their  desires  and 
passions;  and  thus  untold  their  moral  nature  ac- 
cording to  the  rul<  -  of  God's  revealed  law. 

Such  a  character,  involving  a  true  and  vigorous 
evolution  of  body,  mind  and  spirit,  is  an  effectual 
safeguard  against  the  evils  of  prodigality,  the  dis- 
grace of  penuriousriess,  and  the  woes  of  vice  and 
ciime.  Their  property  may  burn  down,  and  they 
may  be  roi>bed  of  their  gold  ;  but  neither  the  flame 
nor  the  robber  can  deprive  them  of  their  charac- 
ter: their  intellectual  and  moral  worth  is  beyond 
the  power  of  man  to  destroy;  no  enemy  can  rob 
them    of  those   virtues    which    a   well-developed 


THE  CHILDREN  S  PATRIMONY. 


205 


mind  and  heart  afford;  they  -will  he  to  them  a 
standing  capital  to  enrich  them  in  all  that  is  es- 
sential to  human  happiness. 

2.  A  good  occupation  is  another  patrimony 
which  should  descend  to  the  children  of  a  Chris- 
tian home.  Bring  up  3*0111*  children  to  some  use- 
ful employment  by  which  they  may  be  able  to 
make  a  comfortable  living ;  and  you  thereby  give 
them  hundreds,  and,  perhaps,  thousands  of  dol- 
lars per  year ;  you  give  them  a  boon  which  can- 
not be  taken  from  them.  Many  parents,  hoping 
to  secure  for  their  children  a  large  pecuniary  pat- 
rimony, will  not  permit  them  to  learn  either  a 
trade  or  a  profession  ;  but  let  them  grow  up  in  in- 
dolence and  ignorance,  unable  as  well  as  unwil- 
ling, to  be  useful  either  to  themselves  or  to  others, 
living  for  no  purpose,  and  unfit  even  to  take  care 
of  what  they  leave.  And  when  their  wealth  de- 
scends to  them,  they  soon  spend  it  all  in  a  life  of 
dissipation  ;  so  that  in  a  few  years  they  find  them- 
selves poor,  and  friendless,  and  ignorant  of  all 
means  of  a  livelihood,  without  character,  without 
lmiiic,  without  hope,  a  nuisance  to  society,  a  dis- 
grace to  their  parents,  a  curse  to  themselves!  But 
as  we  have  already  dwelt  upon  this  subject  in  the 
chapter  on  the  choice  of  pursuits,  we  shall  not 
enlarge  upon  it  here. 

3.  True  religion  is  another  inheritance  which 
should  descend  to  the  children  of  the  Christian 
home.  This  is  an  undefined  and  imperishable 
treasure,  which  does  not  become  worthless  :if  the 
grave,  but   which    will   continue   to    increase   in 


20G  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

preciousness  as  long  as  the  ages  of  eternity  shall 
roll  on.  If  through  the  parent's  pious  agency, 
the  child  conies  into  possession  of  this  invaluable 
blessing,  there  is  given  to  him  more  than  earthly 
treasure,  more  than  pecuniary  competency,  more 
than  a  good  name,  or  a  fair  reputation,  or  a  high 
social  position  in  this  life;  he  receives  a  title  to 
and  persona]  meetness  for,  the  undented  and  im- 
perishable inheritance  of  heaven,  composed  of 
glittering  crowns  of  glory,  of  unspeakable  joys, 
and  sweet  communion  with  all  the  loved  and 
cherished  there.  Thus  the  fruits  of  a  parent's  la- 
bor for  the  salvation  of  his  children  constitute  an 
infinitely  more  valuable  patrimony  than  all  the 
accumulated  fruits  of  his  industry  in  behalf  of 
wealth.  All  the  wealth,  and  rank,  and  reputation 
which  may  descend  from  parent  to  child  can  not 
supersede  the  necessity  of  a  spiritual  patrimony. 
It  is  Only,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  i'onner  chapter, 
when  you  minister  to  the  spiritual  wants  of  your 
children  and  tinge  all  their  thoughts  and  feelings 
with  a  sense  of  eternity ;  when  your  home  is  made 
a  spiritual  nursery;  and  you  work  for  their  eter- 
nal benefit,  and  thereby  secure  for  them  the  fulfill- 
ment of  those  Messed  promises  which  God  has 
given  concerning  the  children  of  believing  par- 
ents, that  you  leave  them  a  patrimony  worthy  the 
Christian  home.  Such  a  spiritual  patrimony  it  is 
within  the  power  of  all  Christian  parents  to  be- 
stow. And  without  its  enjoyment  by  your  chil- 
dren, you  fail  to  minister  unto  them  as  a  faithful 
steward  of  God.     You  may  minister  to  their  bod- 


THE    CHILDREN'S   PATRIMONY.  297 

ies  and  minds;  you  may  amass  for  them  a  for- 
tune ;  you  may  give  them  an  education  ;  you  may 
establish  them  in  the  most  lucrative  business ;  you 
may  lit  them  for  an  honorable  and  responsible  po- 
sition ;  you  may  leave  them  the  heritage  of  social 
and  political  influence;  and  you  may  caress  them 
with  all  the  passionate  fondness  of  the  parental 
heart  and  hand;  yet,  without  the  heritage  of  true 
piety,-of  the  true  piety  of  the  parent  reproduced 
in  the  heart  and  character  of  the  child,  all  will  te 
worse  than  vain,  yea,  a  curse  to  both  the  parent 
and  the  children. 

Having  thus  briefly  pointed  out  some  ot  the 
essential  features  of  the  children's  patrimony, 
as  physical,  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  we 
shall  now  advert  to  the  principles  upon  which 
parents  should  proceed  in  the  distribution  ot  their 
property  to  their  children. 

They  should  not  give  them  more  than  a  compe- 
tency. That  they  should  lay  by  something  for 
them  is  conceded  by  all.  This  is  both  a  right  and 
a  duty  It  is  included  in  the  obligation  to  provide 
for  them;  and  he  who  does  it  not  "bath  denied 
the  faith  and  is  worse  than  an  infidel."  Natural 
affection,  as  well  as  supernatural  faith,  stimulates 
the  parent  to  provide  thus  for  his  offspring. 

But  this  does  not  demand  a  great  fortune ;  but 
a  simple  competency,  that  is,  just  enough  to  meet 
their  immediate  wants  and  emergencies  when  they 
enter  the  world  and  begin  business-life.  Tins 
competence  should  correspond  with  the  social  po- 
sition they  occupied  under  the  parental  root.  It 
♦18 


2f»8  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

should  not  go  beyond  this;  it  shonl»l  be  just 
enough  to  meel  the  social  and  financial  exigen 
of  the  child.  It  should  be  measured  also  by  the 
peculiar  uecessitiea  of  the  child,  by  hia  health, 
abilities,  nnil  circumstances.  UA  parent  is  justi- 
fied," Bays  Paley  in  hia  Moral  and  Political  Phi- 
losophy, "in  making  a  difference  between'  hia 
children  according  as  they  stand  in  greater  or  Less 
need  of  the  assistance  of  his  fortune,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  difference  of  their  age  or  sex,  or  of 
the  situations  in  which  they  are  placed,  or  the  va- 
rious success  which  they  have  met  with." 

Now  the  law  of  competence  does  not  demand, 
yea.  it  forbids,  more  than  a  sufficiency  to  meet 
these  peculiar  exigencies  of  the  child.  Those 
parents  who  seek  for  more,  become  parsimonious, 
Unfaithful  to  the  moral  interests  of  ther  house- 
hold, and  Indifferent  to  all  legitimate  objects  of 
charity  and  benevolence.  These  are  indeed  hut 
the  necessary  fruits  of  unfaithfulness  to  this  law; 
for  the  Course  of  God's  providence  indicates  the 
impossibility  of  our  faithfulness  to  the  duty  of 
Christian  beneficence,  and  at  the  same  time  lay 
up  for  our  children  more  than  a  sufficiency.     We 

find  indeed,  that  in  almot  every  instance  in  which 

parents  have  transcended  the  limits  of  competence, 

and  thus  raised  their  children  above  the  necessity 
of  doing  anything  themselves  for  a  subsistence, 

God   has   cursed   the  act,   and   the   canker  of   His 

displeasure  has  consumed  this  ill-saved  property, 
That  curse  we  Bee  often  in  the  prodigality  and 
dissipation  of  the  children.     They  walk  iu  the 


TUB  CHILDREN'S  PATRIMONY. 


299 


slippery  paths  of  sin,  kneel  at  the  altar  of  Mam- 
mon, fare  sumptuously  every  Jay,  as  prodigal  in 
spending  their  fortune  as  their  parents  were  pe- 
nurious in  amassing  it,  until  at  last  they  come  to 
wailt,  rush  into  crime,  and  end  their  unhappy  life 
in  the  state's  prison,  or  upon  the  gibhet. 

"We  see,  therefore,  that  when  parents  give  their 
children  more  than  what  they  actually  need,  they 
place  in  their  possession  the  instruments  with 
which  they  ruin  themselves.  History  shows  that 
the  most  wealthy  men  started  out  in  the  world 
with  hardy  enough,  and  some,  with  nothing; 
and  that  generally  those  who  started  with  an 
independent  fortune  ended  with  less  than  they 
started,  and  many  closed  their  earthly  career  in 
abject  poverty  and  misery.  Besides,  the  man  who 
made  his  fortune  knows  how  to  keep  and  expend 
it;  and  in  point  of  happiness  derived  from  prop- 
erty, "there. is  no  comparison  between  a  fortune 
which  a  man  acquires  by  well-applied  industry,  or 
by  a  series  of  success  in  his  business,  and  one 
found  in  his  possession  or  received  from  another." 
Let,  therefore,  the  property  you  leave  }-our  chil- 
dren be  just  enough  to  meet  the  exigencies  of 
their  situations,  and  no  more  ;  for 


"  Wealth  hath  never  given    happiness,  but  often  hastened 

misery ; 
Enough  hath  never  caused  misery,  but  often  quickened  hap- 

pmess ; 
Enough  is  less  than  thy  thought,  O  pampered  creature  of  society, 
And  he  that  hath  more  than  enough,  is  a  thief  of  the  rights 

of  his  brother  !  " 


300  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

Parents  should  be  impartial  in  the  distribution 
of  their  patrimony  among  their  children.  They 
should  never  give  one  more  than  another  unless 
for  very  plausible  and  Christian  reasons,  such  as 
had  health,  peculiar  circumstances,  <»i'  want,  &c. 
They  should  have  no  pets,  no  favorites  among 
them;  and  care  more  for  oue  than  tor  another,  or 
indulge  one  more  than  another.  Neither  should 
they  withhold  a  dowry  from  a  child  as  a  punish- 
ment, unless  his  crime  and  character  are  of  such 
an  execrable  nature  as  to  warrant  the  assurance 
that  its  bestowment  would  but  enhance  his  mis- 
eiy.  Then  indeed,  it  would  bo  a  blessing  to  with- 
hold it.  "A  child's  vices  may  be  of  that  sort," 
says  Paley  in  his  Philosophy,  "and  his  vicious 
habits  so  incorrigible,  as  to  afford  much  the  same 
reason  for  believing  that  he  will  waste  or  misem- 
ploy  the  fortune  put  into  his  power,  as  if  he  were 
mad  or  idiotish,  in  which  case  a  parent  may  treat 
him  as  a  madman  or  an  idiot;  that  is.  may  deem 
it  sufficient  to  provide  for  his  support  by  an  an- 
nuity equal  to  his  wants  and  innocent  enjoyments, 
and  which  he  may  be  restrained  from  alienating. 
This  Beems  to  be  the  only  case  in  which  a  disin- 
herison, nearly  absolute,  is  justifiable." 

Neither  should  parents  be  capricious  in  the  dis- 
tribution  of  their  property  among  their  children. 
They  have  no  right  to  withhold  a  dowry  from 
children  because  they  have  married  against  their 
will,  no  more  than  they  have  a  right,  for  this  rea- 
son, to  disown  them.  This  would  be  distributing 
their  property  upon  the  principle  of  revenge  or 


THE  CHILDREN'S  PATRIMONY.        301 

reward.  No  parent  has  a  right  to  indulge  a  pref- 
erence founded  on  such  an  unreasonable  and 
criminal  feeling  as  revenge.  Neither  has  he  a 
right  to  distribute  his  property  from  considera- 
tions of  age,  sex,  merit,  or  situation.  The  idea 
of  giving  all  to  the  eldest  son  to  perpetuate  family 
wealth  and  distinction;  or  of  giving  all  to  the 
sons,  and  withholding  from  the  daughters  ;  or  of 
giving  to  those  children  only  who  were  more  ob- 
sequious in  their  adherence  to  their  parent's  ty- 
rannical requisitions,— is  unreasonable,  unchris- 
tian, and  against  the  generous  dictates  of  natural 
affection. 

From  this  whole  subject  we  may  infer  the  in- 
fatuation of  those  parents  who  toil  as  the  slave 
in  the  galley,  to  amass  a  large  fortune  for  their 
children.  To  accomplish  this  object  they  be- 
come drudges  all  their  life.  They  rise  early 
and  retire  late',  deny  themselves  even  the  ordi- 
nary comforts  of  life,  expend  all  the  time  and 
strength  of  their  manhood,  make  slaves  of  their 
wives  and  children,  and  live  retired  from  ah\so- 
ciety,  in  order  to  lay  up  a  fortune  for  their  off- 
spring. To  this  end  they  make  all  things  sub- 
ordinate and  subservient;  and,  indeed,  they  so 
invatly  neglect  their  children  as  to  deprive  them 
of  even  the  capacity  of  enjoying  intellectually 
or  morally. the  patrimony  they  thus  secure  for 
them.  They  bring  them  up  in  gross  ignorance 
of  every  thing  save  work  and  money.  They 
teach  flaem  close-fisted  parsimony,  and  prepare 
them  to  lead  a  life  as  servile  and  infatuated  as 


302  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

their  own.  Miserable  delusion!  ""What  shall 
it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world,  and 
lose  his  own  soul?"  * 

"  0  cursed  lust  of  gold  !  when  for  thy  sake 
The  fool  throws  up  his  interest  in  both  worlds ; 
First  starved  in  this,  then  damned  in  that  to  com©  I" 


CHAPTER   XXV. 


THE    PROMISES    OF   TUB   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

"The  promise  is  unto  you,  and  to  your  children." 

Acts  ii.,  39. 

"Pakent  who  plantedst  in  the  joy  of  love, 
Yet  hast  not  gathcr'd  fruit, — save  rankling  thorns, 
Or  Sodom's  bitter  apples, — hast  thou  read 
Heaven's  promise  to.the  seeker  ?    Thou  may'st  bring 
Those  o'er  whose  cradle  thou  didst  watch  with  pride, 
And  lay  them  at  thy  Savior's  feet,  for  lo ! 
His  shadow  falling  on  the  wayward  soul, 
May  give  it  holy  health.     And  when  thou  kneel'st 
Low  at  the  pavement  of  sweet  Mercy's  gate, 
Beseeching  for  thine  erring  ones,  unfold 
The  passport  of  the  King, — '  Ask,  and  receive  ! 
Knock, — and  it  shall  be  opened  !"  ' 

The  promises  of  the  Christian  home  may  he  di- 
vided into  two  kinds,  viz. :  Those  which  God  lias 
given  to  the  family;  and  those  which  Christian 
parents  have  made  to  God. 

God  has  not  only  laid  His  requisitions  upon  the 
Christian  home,  but  given  his  promises.  Every 
command  is  accompanied  with  a  promise.  These 
promises  give  color  to  all  the  hopes  of  home. 


304  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

When  the  dark  cloud  of  tribulation  overhangs 
the  parent's  heart;  when  the  overwhelming  storm 
of  misfortune  rages  around  his  habitation,  up- 
rooting his  hopes  and  demolishing  his  interests; 

when  the  ruthless  hand  of  death  tears  from  his 
embrace  the  wife  of  his  bosom  and  the  children 
of  his  love; — even  in  hours  of  bereavement  like 
these,  the  promises  of  God  dispel  the  gloom,  and 
surround  his  home  and  his  heart  with  the  sun- 
shine of  peace  and  joy. 

His  promises  extend  to  both  the  parents  and 
their  offspring.  "Unto  you,  and  unto  your  chil- 
dren," "I  will  pour  my  spirit  on  thy  seed,  and  my 
blessing  on  thine  offspring;  and  they  shall  spring 
up  as  among  the  grass,  as  willows  by  the  water- 
courses. One  shall  say,  I  am  the  Lord's;  and 
another  shall  call  himself  by  the  name  of  Jacob; 
and  another  shall  subscribe  with  his  hand  unto 
tin'  Lord,  and  surname  himself  by  the  name  of 
Israel."  His  promises  extend  to  children's  chil- 
dren ;  and  whatever  they  may  be  for  the  parent, 
they  are  "visited  upon  the  children  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generation." 

X"\v  these  divine  promises  are  of  two  kinds, — 
the  promise  of  punishment,  and  the  promise  of 
reward,  lie  promises  to  punish  the  unfaithful 
parent,  ami  to  reward  the  faithful  parent.  He 
also  promises  to  visit  both  the  evil  and  the  good 
of  the  parents  upon  their  children.  Such  is  the 
constitution  of  the  family,  and  such  are  the  vital 
relations  which  the  members  sustain  to  each  other, 
that  by  the  law  of  natural  and  moral  rcproduc- 


ITS   PROMISES. 


305 


tion,  the  child  is  either  blessed  or  cursed  in  the 
parent.  What  the  parent  does  will  run  out  in  its 
legitimate  consequences  to  the  child,  either  as  a 
malediction  or  as  a  benediction. 

We  have  divine  promises  to  punish  the  unfaith- 
ful members  of  the  Christian  home.  If  the  par- 
ent becomes  guilty  of  iniquity,  it  will  be  visited 
upon  the  children  from  generation  to  generation. 
There  is  no  consideration  which  should  more  ef- 
fectually restrain  parents  from  unfaithfulness  than 
this.  Let  them  become  selfish,  sensual,  indolent, 
and  dissipated,  and  soon  these  elements  of  iniquity 
will  be  transmitted  to  their  offspring.  What  the 
parent  sows,  the  child  will  reap.  If  the  former 
sow  to  the  flesh,  the  latter  shall  of  the  flesh  reap 
corruption.  Thus,  whatsoever  the  parent  sows 
in  the  child  he  shall  reap  from  the  child.  The 
promised  curse  of  the  parent's  wickedness  is  de- 
posited in  the  child  so  far  as  that  wickedness  af- 
fected the  child's  character.  This  is  all  based  up- 
on the  great  principle  that  the  promises  are  unto 
you,  and  to  your  children. 

But  while  this  great  principle  is  ominous  of  ter- 
ror to  the  ungodly,  it  is  a  pleasing  theme  to  the 
pious  and  faithful.  Home  is  a  stewardship ;  and 
if  faithful  to  its  high  and  holy  vocation,  it  has  a 
good  reward  for  its  labor  of  love.  "If  ye  sow  to 
the  spirit  ye  shall  of  the  spirit  reap  life  everlast- 
ing." This  promise  of  reward  is  "to  you  and  to 
your  children."  "Many  souls  shall  be  given  for 
its  hire."  Their  children  shall  reap  the  reward  of 
the  faithfulness  of  the  parents.     Of  them  it  shall 


300 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


be  Bald,  "this  is  the  Beed  which  the  Lord  hath 
blessed."  Faithful  parents  have  thus  a  glorious 
recompense  of  reward.  God  BhaU  reward  thee 
openly.     Make  your  household  a  true  nursery  for 

the  s<»ul;  and  Ee  a\  i  1 1  give  thee  thy  wages.  The 
blessing  of  the  Most  High  will  descend  like  dew 

upon  you  and  your  children.  And  when  they 
grow  up  to  manhood.  He  will  make  them  Jlis 
agents  in  rewarding  you.  They  will  honor  and 
comfort  you  in  your  declining  years.  They  will 
not  depart  from  the  ways  of  the  Lord  in. which 
you  trained  them.  Though  they  may  he  in  a  dis- 
tant land, — far  from  you  and  the  cherished  home 
of  their  childhood,  yet  they  will  obey  your  admo- 
nitions, gratefully  remember  your  kindness^  and 
their  grateful  obedience  and  remembrance  will  be 
your  great  reward  from  them.  They  will  rise  up 
and  call   you  blessed. 

"  Though  wc  dwell  apart, 
Thy  loving  words  arc  with  me  evermore, — 
Thy  precious  loving  words.      Thy  hand,  and  heart, 
Ami  earnest  soul  of  love,  are  here  impressed, 
For  me.  a  dear  memorial  through  all  time. 
Mother  !   T  cannot  recompense  thy  love, 
But  thy  reward  is  sure,  for  thou  hast  done 
Thy  duty  perfectly,  and  we  rise  up 
And  call  thee  blessed  ;   and  the  Lord  shall  give 
Thy  pious  cares  and  labors  rich  reward." 

And  when  you  descend  to  the  grave  and  are 
gathered  to  your  lathers,  the  assuranec  of  fidelity 
to  your  home-trust,  the  prospect  of  meeting  your 

children  in  heaven,  and  all  the  brilliant  hopes  that 


ITS    PROMISES. 


307 


loom  up  before  you,  full  of  the  light  and  glory  of 
the  eternal  world,  will  furnish  you  a  great  recom- 
pense of  reward. 

Parents  can  rely  upon  these  promises  of  God 
with  the  full  assurance  of  faith;  for  His  promises 
arc  yea  and  amen.  Let  them  but  lay  hold  upon 
the  promises,  and  act  upon  the  conditions  of 
their  fulfillment,  and  then  leave  the  rest  to  God. 
Abraham  and  Joshua,  and  David,  acted  upon  this 
principle  in  their  families.  Let  the  members  of 
the  Christian  home  do  the  same,  and  the  blessing 
of  God  will  rest  upon  them. 

God  promises  to  reward  parents  in  this  life. 
We  find  their  fulfillment  in  the  peace,  the  hopes, 
the  interests,  and  the  pleasures  of  the  faithful 
household.  The  members  are  happy  in  each  oth- 
er's love,  in  each  other's  virtue,  in  each  other's 
worth,  in  each  other's  hopes,  in  each  other's  in- 
terests, in  each  other's  confidence,  in  each  other's 
piety,  in  each  other's  fidelity,  in  each  other's  hap- 
piness. Thus  God  shall  reward  thee  openly.  He 
has  never  said  to  the  seed  of  Jacob  seek  ye  me  in 
vain.  "Verily  there  is  a  reward  for  the  right- 
eous." "This  is  the  seed  which  the  Lord  hath 
blessed." 

The  promised  reward  of  faithful  parents  may 
be  seen  in  their  children.  They  are  in  the  true 
Christian  home  a  precious  heritage  from  the 
Lord.  Thus  a  parent's  faithfulness  wasrewarded 
in  the  piety  of  Baxter,  and  Doddridge,  and  Watts. 
What  a  rich  reward  did  Elkanah  and  Hannah  re- 
ceive by   their  training  up  Samuel!     And   vcre 


308  Tin:  cm: tst ian  HOME, 

not  Lni>  and  Eunice  rewarded  for  their  faithful- 
to  young  Timothy?  What  a  glorious  reward 
the  mother  of  John  Q.  Adams  received  from 
God,  in  that  greal  and  good  man!  Cod  1»1< 
her  fidelity,  by  making  him  worthy  of  Buch  a 
mother,  lie  himself  was  conscious  that  he  was 
his  mother's  reward,  as  may  be  Been  from  the  fol- 
lowing anecdote  of  him.  Governor  Briggs  <>f 
Massachusetts,  after  reading  with  great  interest 
the  letters  o{'  John  Q.  Adam's  mother,  one  day 
went  <»vcr  to  his  seat  in  Congress,  and  said  to  him  : 

"  Mr.  Adams.  I  have  found  out  who  made  you  !  " 

""What  do  you  mean  ?  "  said  he. 

"I  have  been  reading  the  letters  of  your  moth- 
er," was  the  reply. 

With  a  dashing  eye  and  glowing  face,  he  started, 
and  in  his  peculiar  manner,  said  :  "  Yes,  Briggs, 
all  that  is  good  in  me,  I  owe  to  my  mother!" 

But  God  promises  to  reward  faithful  parents 
in  the  life  to  come.  Their  greal  reward  is  in 
heaven.  The  departure  of  way  pious  mem- 
ber of  tie  ir  home  hut  increases  the  heavenly  re- 
ward.     The    little   ellild   that   dies    in  its   mother's 

arms,  and  is  borne  up  to  the  God  who  gave  it, 
hut  increases  by  its  sainted  presence  there,  her 
joyful  anticipations  of  the  eternal  reward. 

"  Ami  when,  by  father's  lonely  bod, 

Vnii  place  me  in  the  ground, 
And  bid  green  turf,  with  daisies  spread, 

J I  as  also  wrapt  me  round; 
Rejoice  to  think,  to  you  'tis  given, 
To  have  a  ransomed  child  in  heaven !  " 


> 


ITS    PROMISES.  309 

And  oh,  how  glorious  will  be  this  reward  when 
all  the  members  shall  meet  again  in  heaven,  rec- 
ognize each  other  there,  and  unite  their  harps  and 
voices  in  ascriptions  of  praise  to  God.  There  in 
that  better  home,  where  no  separations  take  place, 
no  trials  arc  endured,  no  sorrows  felt,  no  tears 
shed,  they  shall  enjoy  the  complete  fulfillment  of 
divine  promises.  Heaven,  with  its  unfading  treas- 
ures, with  its  golden  streets,  with  its  crowns  of 
glory,  with  its  unspeakable  joys,  with  its  river  of 
life,  and  with  its  anthems  of  praise,  will  be  their 
great  recompense  of  the  reward.  How  the  an- 
ticipation of  this  should  stimulate  Christian  par- 
ents to  increased  fidelity  ;  oh,  what  a  happy  meet- 
ing will  that  be,  when  husband  and  wife,  parent 
and  child,  brother  and  sister,  after  many  long 
years  of  separation,  shall  greet  each  other  in  that 
glorious  world,  and  feel  that  parting  grief  shall 
weep  no  more ! 

"  Oh  !  when  a  mother  meets  on  high, 

The  child  she  lost  in  infancy  ; 
Hath  she  not  then  for  pains  and  fears, 

The  day  of  woe,  the  watchful  night, 
For  all  her  Borrows,  all  her  tears, 

An  over-payment  of  delight?  " 

"With  these  gracious  promises  of  reward  sound- 
ing in  their  ears.  Christian  parents  should  never 
despair;  neither  should  they  doubt  for  a  moment 
the  fidelity  of  Grbd  to  all  his  promises.  Tt  is  true 
that  His  promises  are  conditional,  and  their  ful- 
fillment depends  upon  the  parent's  performance 


* 


310  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

of  his  part  as  the  condition,  yet  to  every  duty  ho 
has  attached  a  promise;  and  wherever  He  has 
made  a  promise  for  ns,  he  has  given  as  the  ability 

to  use  the  means  of  securing  its  fulfillment;  and 
as  soon  as  their  conditions  are  thus  met,  they  be- 
come absolute.  "Train  up  a  child  in  the  way  he 
should  go."  Here  is  the  duty.  "And  when  he 
grows  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it."  Here  is 
tin/promise.  The  condition  is,  that  you  discharge 
the  duty.  If  you  do  so,  the  promise  becomes  ab- 
solute, and  shall  with  certainty  be  divinely  ful- 
filled in  your  child,  though  the  time  and  manner 
of  this  fulfillment  may  not  meet  your  expectations. 
But  some  may  object  to  this  position,  and  re- 
mind us  that  pious  parents  are  known  to  have 
ungodly  children  who  died  in  their  sins.  They 
may  refer  us  to  the  case  of  Absalom,  and  to  the 
sons  of  Eli.  In  reply  we  would  state  that  this 
is  begging  the  question.  It  is  here  taken  for 
granted  that  tliese  pious  parents  did  fulfill  the 
conditions  attached  to  the  above  promises.  This 
is  a  Here  assumption;  for  Absalom  was  not  prop- 
erly trained;  and  both  he  and  the  sons  of  Levi, 
were  ruined  by  the  misguided  fondness  and  ex- 
tn  in.'  indulgence  of  their  parents.  And  thus  also 
does  tie'  foolish  partiality  of  many  pious  parents 
prevent  their  fidelity  to  their  children.  AVe  must 
not  think  thai  all  pious  parents  are  faithful  to 
their  duty  to  their  children.  The  above  objection, 
however,  assumes  this  ground;  and,  therefore, 
it  is  not  valid.  It  is  often  said  that  the  children 
of  ministers  and  pious  parents  are  usually  more 


ITS    PROMISES.  311  ' 

wicked  than  other  children.  This  is  false.  The 
opposite  is  true.  "We  admit,  some  have  had  chil- 
dren ;  but  it  is  the  fault  of  the  parents ;  not  be- 
cause God  does  not  fulfill  His  covenant  promises 
to  His  people.  His  people,  in  these  instances,  do 
not  meet  the  conditions  upon  which  His  promises 
are  made  absolute. 

"We  must  not  suppose  that  because  a  divine 
promise  exists  detached  from  expressed  condi- 
tions, it  will  be  fulfilled  without  the  use  of  means. 
There  is  a  manifest  compatibility  between  the  ab- 
solute promises  of  God  and  the  use  of  the  means 
in  our  power  for  their  fulfillment.  The  promise 
to  Paul  in  the  ship  in  which  he  was  conveyed  to 
Rome,  that  none  of  the  passengers  should  perish, 
was  not  incompatible  with  Paul's  declaration, 
"  except  these  persons  abide  in  the  ship,  ye  can- 
not be  saved."  Neither  were  the  efforts  of  the 
mother  of  Moses  to  save  him,  incompatible  with 
the  absolute  promise  of  God  that  "this  babe  shall 
be  saved,  and  be  the  deliverer  of  Israel."  What 
she  did  to  preserve  his  life  was  accompanied  with 
an  active,  confiding  faith  in  the  divine  promise 
concerning  him.  And  thus  should  faith  in  God's 
promises  stimulate  Christian  parents  to  zealous 
activity  in  the  use  of  all  those  means  which  se- 
cure their  fulfillment. 

The  Christian  home  should  ever  keep  in  lively 
remembrance  the  solemn  promises  made  by  her 
to  God.  In  marriage,  in  holy  baptism,  she  has 
made  vows  unto  God,  and  he  says  to  her,  pay 
thy  vows.     "When  thou  shalt  vow  avow  unto 


t 

312  THE    CHRISTIAN    nOME. 

the  Lord  thy  God,  thou  shall  not  slack  to  pay  it; 
for  the  Lord  thy  God  will  Barely  require  it  of 
thee."  These  parental  promises  made  t<>  God  re- 
gard  themselves  and  their  children  ;  and  their 
faithful  fulfillment  brings  them  -within  the  glori- 
ous promise  which  God  gave  to  Abraham;  for, 
says  Paul,  "If  ye  be  Christ's,  then  are  ye  Abra- 
ham's seed,  and  heirs  according  to  the  promise:" 
Gal.  iii.,  29. 

Christian  parents:  the  promises  of  God  shine 
forth  as  brilliantly  now  as  ever  they  did  upon  the 
pages  of  sacred  history.  They  are  as  bright  for 
you  as  they  were  for  Abraham  and  Joshua,  when 
they  trembled  in  sublime  elocpience  upon  the  lips 
of  God.  Let  them,  therefore,  be  not  iu  vain. 
The  promises  are  unto  you,  and  to  your  chil- 
dren. And  you  in  turn  have  promised  Cod  that 
you  would  bless  your  household,  and  be  faithful 
to  \<»ur  children.  Hold  fast  to  these  promises 
without  wavering.  Hang  all  your  hopes  upon 
them.  Cling  to  them  with  the  wrestling  spirit  of 
Jacob.  And  remember  that  you  cannot  shake 
oil"  your  vows  and  promises  made  to  God.  He 
will  surely  require  it  of  thee.  Therefore  pay 
thy  vows  unto  the  Lord.  God  will  reward  you 
for  so  doing.  "The  mountains  shall  depart,  and 
the  hills  be  removed;  but  my  kindness  shall  not 
depart  from  thee,  neither  shall  the  covenant  of 
my  peace  he  removed,  saith  the  Lord  that  hath 
mercy  on  thee:"  Isaiah  liv.,  10. 


CHAPTER   XXVI. 

THE    BEREAVEMENTS    OF   TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME.* 

"  On,  long  ago 
Those  blessed  days  departed,  we  are  reft, 
And  scattered  like  the  leaves  of  some  fair  rose, 
That  fall  off  one  by  one  upon  the  breeze, 
Which  bears  them  where  it  listcth.     Never  more 
Can  they  be  gathered  and  become  a  rose. 
And  we  can  be  united  never  more 
A  family  on  earth  !" 

Bereavement  involves  the  providential  disci- 
pline of  home.  In  almost  every  household  there 
have  been  sorrows  and  tears  as  well  as  joys  and 
hopes.     As  the  Christian  home  is  the  depository 

of  the  highest  interests  and  the  purest  pleasures, 
so  it  is  the  scene  of  sad  bereavements  and  of  the 
darkest  trials.     It  may  become  as  desolate  as  the 


*In  this  chapter  we  have  made  free  use  of  poetical  quota- 
tions for  the  benefit  of  the  afflicted. 

14 


314 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


home  of  Job.  The  Christian  may,  like  the  aged 
tree,  be  stripped  of  his  clusters,  his  branches,  all 
his  BTimmer  glory,  and  sink  down  into  a  lonely 
and   dreary  existence.     His   home,  which   once 

rang  with  glad  voices,  may  become  silent  and 
Bad  and  hopeless.  Those  hearts  which  once 
beat  with  life  and  love,  may  become  still  and 
cold;  and  all  the  earthly  interests  which  clus- 
tered around  his  fireside  may  pass  away  like  the 
dream  of  an  hour! 

The  members  of  home  must  separate.  Theirs 
is  hut  a  probationary  state.  Their  household  is 
but  a  tent, — a  tabernacle  in  the  flesh,  and  all  that 
it  contains  will  pass  away.  The  fondest  ties  will 
be  broken;  the  brightest  hopes  will  fade;  all  its 
joys  are  transient;  its  interests  meteoric,  and  the 
fireside  of  cheerfulness  will  ere  long  become  the 
scene  of  despondency.  Every  swing  oi  the  pen- 
dulum of  the  clock  tells  that  the  time  of  its  pro- 
bation is  becoming  shorter  and  shorter,  and  that 
its  members  are  approaching  nearer  and  nearer 
the  period  of  their  separation. 

"  There  is  no  union  here  of  hearts, 
That  finds  not  here  an  end." 


Alas!  how  soon  this  takes  place!  The  joy  of 
Lome  would  be  perfect  did  not  the  thought  of  a 
speedy  separation  intrude.  No  sooner  than  the 
voice  of  childhood  is  changed,  than  separation 
begins  to  take  place.  Some  separate  for  another 
world;  some  are  borne  by  the  winds  and  waves 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


315 


to  distant  lands ;  others  enter  the  deep  forests  of 
the  West,  and  are  heard  of  no  more ; — 

"Alas !  the  brother  knows  not  now  where  fall  the  sister's  tears ! 
One  haply  revels  at  the  feast,  while  one  may  droop  alone ; 
For  broken  is  the  household  chain, — the  bright  fire  quenched 
and  gone !" 

"What  melancholy  feelings  arc  awakened  within 
at  the  sight  of  a  deserted  home,  in  which  loved 
ones  once  met  and  lived  and  loved ;  but  from 
which  they  have  now  wandered,  each  in  the  path 
pointed  out  by  the  guiding'  hand  of  Providence. 
How  beautifully  does  Mrs.  Hemans  portray  this 
separation  in  the  following  admirable  lines ! — 

"  They  grew  in  beauty  side  by  side, 
They  filled  one  home  with  glee ; 
Their  graves  are  severed,  far  and  wide, 
By  mount,  and  stream,  and  sea. 

The  same  fond  mother  bent  at  night 
O'er  each  fair  sleeping  brow  ; 

She  had  each  folded  flower  in  sight- 
Where  are  those  dreamers  now  ? 

One  midst  the  forests  of  the  West 

By  a  dark  stream  is  laid  ; 
The  Indian  knows  his  place  of  rest 

Far  in  the  cedar  shade. 

The  sea,  the  blue  lone  sea,  hath  one, 

He  lies  where  pearls  lie  deep  ; 
He  was  the  lored  <>f  all,  yet  none 

O'er  his  low  bed  may  weep. 


31C  THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

One  sloops  where  southern  vines  are  dres-M, 

Above  the  noble  slain  ; 
He  wrapped  his  colors  round  his  breast, 

On  a  blood-red  field  of  Spain. 

And  one — o'er  her  the  myrtle  showers, 

Its  leaves  by  soft  winds  fanned  ; 
She  faded  midst  Italian  flowers — 

The  last  of  that  fair  band. 

And  parted  thus,  they  rest,  who  played 

Beneath  the  same  green  tree ; 
Whose  voices  mingled  as  they  prayed 

Around  one  parent  knee  !" 

It  is  thus  in  almost  every  household.  The  mem- 
beira  may  be  divided  into  two  classes, — the  pres- 
ent and  the  absent  ones.  Who  may  not  say  of 
his  family — 

' '  We  are  not  all  here  ! 
Some  are  away — the  dead  ones  dear, 
Who  thronged  with  us  this  ancient  hearth, 
And  gave  the  hour  of  guiltless  mirth. 
Fate,  with  a  stern,  relentless  hand, 
Looked  in  and  thinned  our  little  band. 
Some  like  a  night-flash  passed  away, 
And  si  Hue  sank  lingering  day  by  day, 
The  ipiiet  graveyard — some  lie  there, — 
We're  not  all  here  !" 

The  bereavements  of  home  are  diversified.  The 
reverses  of  fortune  constitute  an  important  class 
of  family  afflictions,  causing  the  habits,  customs, 
social  privileges  and  advantages  of  home  to  be 


• 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


317 


broken  up  and  changed.  Many  a  family,  which, 
in  former  days,  enjoyed  all  the  pleasures  and  priv- 
ileges of  wealth  and  social  distinction,  have  DOW 
to  struggle  with  cruel  poverty,  and  receive  from 
the  world,  scorn  and  ridicule  and  dishonor. 

But  the  greatest  bereavement  of  home  is,  gen- 
erally, death.  They  only,  who  have  lived  in  the 
house  of  mourning,  know  what  the  sad  bereave- 
ments are  which  death  produces,  and  what  deep 
and  dark  vacancies  this  last  enemy  leaves  in  the 
stricken  heart  of  home. 

"  The  lips  that  used  to  bless  you  there, 
Are  silent  with  the  dead." 

To-day  we  may  visit  the  family.  "What  a  lovely 
scene  it  presents !  The  members  arc  happy  in 
each  other's  love,  and  each  one  resting  his  hopes 
upon  all  the  rest.  No  cares  perplex  them ;  no 
sorrows  corrode  them ;  no  trials  distress  them ; 
no  darkness  overshadows  them !  What  tender 
bonds  unite  them ;  what  hopes  cluster  around 
each  heart;  what  a  depth  of  reciprocated  affec- 
tion we  find  in  each  bosom ;  and  by  what  tender 
sympathy  they  are  drawn  to  each  other ! 

But  alas  !  in  an  hour  of  supposed  security,  that 
loving  group  is  broken  up  by  the  intrusion  of 
death,  and  some  one  or  more  carried  from  the 
bosom  of  love  to  the  cold  and  cheerless  grave. 
The  curfew-bell  speaks  the  solemn  truth,  and 
warns  the  members  that  "in  the  midst  of  life 
they  are  in  death."  Where  is  the  home  that 
ha*  not  some  memorial   of  departed   ones, — a 


818 


TUT-    CHRIS!  I  \X    HOME. 


chair  empty,  a  vacant  Beat  at  the  table, — gar- 
ments laid  by, —  ashes  of  the  dead  treasured  up 
in  the  urn  of  memory!  What  Budden  ravi 
does  this  ruthless  foe  of  life,  often  make  in  tin- 
family!  The  members  an-  often  taken  away, one 
by  "in1  in  quick  succession,  until  all  of  them  are 
laid  side  by  side  beneath  tin-  green  Bod. 

What  a  memorable  epoch  in  the  history  of 
lionic  is  that,  in  which  death  finds  his  first  en- 
trance within  its  sacred  enclosures, and  with  ruth- 
Less  hand  breaks  the  first  link  of  a  golden  chain 
that  creates  its  Identity!  We  can  never  forget 
that  event.  It  may  he  the  tirst-horn  in  the  ra- 
diant beauty  of  youth,  or  the  babe  in  the  first 
bursting  <>f  life's  budding  loveliness,  or  a  father 
in  the  midst  of  his  anxious  cares,  or  the  moth- 
er who  gave  Light  and  happiness  to  all  around 
her.       Whoever    it     is.    (he    first    death    makes    a 

breach  there  which  no  subsequent  bereavement 

can   equal;    new   feelings  are   then   awakened:    a 

new  order  of  associations  is  then  commenced; 

hopes  and   fears  are   then  arOUged   that    never  Hill- 
side;   and   the   mysterious  weh  of  family   life   re- 
ceives the  line  of  a  new  and  darker  thread. 
What  a  sad  bereavement  is  the  death  of  the 

husband    and     father!        Children!     there     is    the 
grave  of  your  father!      YOU   have   recently  heard 

the  clods  of  the  valley  groan  upon  his  eotlin. 

The   parent    stem    from    which    yon    greW   and    to 

which  you  fondly  clung,  has  been  shattered  by 
the   lightning-stroke   of  death,   ami    its   terrible 

.-hock  is  now  felt  iii  every  fiber  of  the  wrenched 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


310 


and  torn  branches.  Yours  is  now  a  widowed 
and  an  orphaned  home.  The  disconsolate  mem- 
bers are  left  helpless  and  hopeless  in  the  world; 
the  widowed  mother  sits  by  the  dying  embers  of 
her  lonely  cottage,  overwhelmed  with  grief,  and 
poor  in  everything  but  her  children  and  her  God. 
These  orphans  are  turned  out  upon  the  cold  char- 
ities of  an  unfriendly  world,  neglected  and  forlorn, 
having  no  one  to  care  for  them  hut  a  poor,  broken- 
hearted mother,  whose  deathless  faith  points  them 
to  the  bright  spirit-world  to  which  their  sainted 
father  has  gone,  where  parting  grief  shall  weep 
no  more. 

But  a  greater  bereavement  even  than  this,  i  . 
the  death  of  a  wife  and  mother.  Ah!  here  [a  a 
bereavement  which  the  child  alone  can  fully  feel. 
When  the  mother  is  laid  upon  the  cold  bier,  and 

sleeps  among  the  dead,  the  center  of  home-love 
and  attraction  is  gone.  What  children  are  more 
desolate  and  more  to  be  pitied  than  the  motherless 
ones?  She,  who  fed  them  from  her  gentle  breast 
and  sung  sweet  lullaby  to  soothe  them  into  sleep, 
— she,  who  taught  them  to  kneel  in  prayer  at  her 
side,  and  ministered  to  all  their  little  wants,  and 
sympathized  with  them  in  all  their  little  troubles, 
— she  lias  now  been  torn  from  them,  leaving  them 
a  -mitten  flock  indeed,  and  the  light  of  her  Bmile 
will  never  again  be  round  their  beds  and  paths. 
As  the  shades  of  night  dose  in  upon  that  smitten 
home,  and  the  chime  of  the  bell  tells  the  hour  in 
which  the  mother  used  to  gather  them  around  her 
for  prayer,  and  sing  them  to  their  no  with 


320  Till:   CHBISTIAH    HOME. 

what  a  Btricken  heart  doea  the  bereaved  husband 
Beek  to  perform  this  office  of  love  in  her  Btead; 
;iiid  aa  he  gathers  them  for  the  firal  time  around 
him,  li"iv  fully  does* he  feel  that  none  can  take  a 
mother's  place ! 

'•  My  sheltering  anna  can  clasp  yon  all, 

^1  v  poor  deserted  throng ; 
Clinic  ;is  you  used  to  cling  to  her 

"\V1ki  sings  tin-  angel's  song. 
Begin,  sweet  ones,  the  accustomed  strain, 

Come,  warble  l<m<l  and  clear; 
Alas,  alas!  you're  weeping  all, 

You're  sobbing  in  my  car; 
Good  night;  go,  say  the  prayer  she  taught, 

Beside  your  little  bed. 

The  lips  that,  used  to  bleBS  you  there, 

Are  silent  with  the  dead. 
A  father's  hand  your  course  may  guide 

Amid  the  storms  of  life, 
II     'are  protect  those  shrinking  plants 

That  dread  the  Btorm  of  strife; 

Bui  who,  Upon  your  infant  hearts, 

Shall  like  that  mother  write  ! 
"Who  toinh  the  strings  that  rule  the  soul? 

Dear  smitten  flock,  good  night!" 

Who  < - : 1 1 1  forgel  :i  mother,  or  lose  those  impres- 
sions which  her  death  made  upon  our  deeply 
Btricken  hearts?  None,  —  not  even  the.  wretch 
who  has  brutalized  all  the  feelings  of  natural 
affection.  The  memory  <>t'  a  mother's  death  is 
a-  fadeless  as  the  deep  impress  of  a  mother's 
love  upon  our  hearts.     As  often  as  avc  resort 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


321 


to  her  grave  we  must  leave  behind  the  tribute 
of  our  tears.  "Who  can  read  the  following  beau- 
tiful lines  of  Cowper,  and — if  the  memory  of  a 
sainted  mother  is  awakened  by  them, — not  weep  ? 

"  My  mother  !  When  I  learned  that  thou  wast  dead, 
Say,  wast  thou  conscious  of  the  tears  I  shed  f 
Hovered  thy  spirit  o'er  thy  sorrowing  son, 
Wretch  even  then,  life's  journey  just  hegun  ! 
Perhaps  thou  gav'st  me,  though  unfelt,  a  kiss ; 
Perhaps  a  tear,  if  souls  can  weep  in  bliss — 
Ah,  that  maternal  smile  !  it  answers — yes  ! 
I  heard  the  bell  toll  on  the  burial  day, 
I  saw  the  hearse  that  bore  thee  slow  away, 
And,  turning  from  my  nurs'ry  window,  drew 
A  long,  long  sigh,  and  wept  a  last  adieu  ! 
But  was  it  such  ?     It  was.     Where  thou  art  gon» 
Adieus  and  farewells  are  a  sound  unknown. 
May  I  but  meet  thee  on  that  peaceful  shore, 
The  parting  word  shall  pass  my  lips  no  more !" 

The  death  of  children  is  a  great  bereavement 
of  home.  Behold  that  little  blossom  withered  in 
its  mother's  arms!  See  those  tears  which  flood 
her  eyes  as  she  bends  in  her  deep  grief  over  the 
grate  of  her  cherished  babe!  Go,  fond  parents, 
to  that  little  mound,  and  weep !  It  is  well  to 
do  so;  it  is  well  for  thee  in  the  twilight  hour 
to  steal  around  that  hallowed  spot,  and  pay  the 
tribute  of  memory  to  your  little  one,  in  flood- 
ing tears.  There  beneath  those  blooming  flow- 
ers which  the  band  of  affection  planted,  it  sweetly 
Bleeps.  It  bids  adieu  to  all  tie'  scenes  and  • 
of  life.  It  just  began  to  taste  the  cup  of  life,  and 
*14 


322  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME.  . 

turned  from  its  ingredients  of  commingled  joy 
and  sorrow,  to  a  more  peaceful  clime.  Cold 
now  is  that  little  heart  which  once  beat  its 
warm  pulses  so  near  to  thine ;  hushed  is  now 
that  sweet  voice  that  once  breathed  music  to 
your  soul.  Like  the  folding  up  of  the  rose,  it 
passed  away;  that  beautiful  bud  which  bloomed 
and  cheered  your  heart,  was  transplanted  ere  the 
storm  beat  upon  it : — 

"  Death  found  strange  beauty  on  that  polished  brow, 
And  dashed  it  out — 

There  was  a  tint  of  rose 
On  cheek  and  lip.     He  touched  the  veins  with  ice, 
And  the  rose  faded. 

Forth  from  those  blue  eyes 
There  spake  a  wishful  tenderness,  a  doubt 
Whether  to  grieve  or  sleep,  which  innocence 
Alone  may  wear.     With  ruthless  haste  he  bound 
The  silken  fringes  of  those  curtained  lids 
Forever. 

There  liad  been  a  murmuring  sound, 
With  which  the  babe  would  claim  its  mother's  ear, 
Charming  her  even  to  tears.     The  spoiler  set 
His  seal  of  silence. 

But  there  beamed  a  smile 
So  fixed,  so  holy,  from  that  cherub  brow, 
Death  gazed — and  left  it  there. 

He  dared  not  steal 
The  signetrring  of  heaven !" 

The  death  of  such  an  infant  is  indeed  a  sore 
affliction,  and  causes  the  bleeding  heart  of  the  par- 
ent to  cry  out,  "Whose  sorrow  is  like  unto  my 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


328 


sorrow !"  Unfeeling  Death  !  that  thou  shouldst 
thus  blight  the  fair  flowers  and  nip  the  unfolding 
buds  of  promise  in  the  Christian  home ! 

"  Death  !  thou  dread  looser  of  the  dearest  tie, 
Was  there  no  aged  and  no  sick  one  nigh  ? 
No  languid  wretch  who  long'd,  but  long'd  in  vain, 
For  thy  cold  hand  to  cool  his  fiery  pain  ? 
And  was  the  only  victim  thou  couldst  find, 
An  infant  in  ifcs  mother's  arms  reclined?" 

Thus  it  is  that  death  often  turns  from  the  sickly 
to  the  healthy,  from  the  decrepitude  of  age  to 
the  strong  man  in  his  prime,  from  the  miserable 
wretch  who  longs  for  the  grave  to  the  smiling 
babe  upon  its  mother's  breast,  and  there  in  those 
"  azure  veins  which  steal  like  streams  along  a 
field  of  snow,"  he  pours  his  putrefying  breath, 
and  leaves  within  that  mother's  arms  nothing  but 
loathsomeness  and  ruin !  It  was  thus,  bereaved 
parents,  that  he  came  within  your  peaceful  home, 
and  threw  a  cruel  mockery  over  all  your  visions 
of  delight,  over  all  the  joys  and  hopes  and  inter- 
ests of  your  fireside,  personifying  their  wreck  in 
the  cold  and  ghastly  corpse  of  your  child.  All 
that  is  now  left  to  you  is,  the  memorials  around 
you  that  once  the  pride  of  your  heart  was  there ; — 

"  The  nursery  shows  thy  pictured  wall, 
Thy  bat,  thy  bow, 
Thy  cloak  and  bonnet,  club  and  ball , 

\        But  where  art  thou  ? 
A  corner  holds  thine  empty  chair, 
Thy  playthings  idly  scattered  there, 
But  speak  to  us  of  our  despair  1" 


824  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

How  sad  and  lonely  especially  is  the  mother 
who  is  called  thus  to  weep  the  loss  of  her  de- 
parted infant.  Oh,  it  is  hard  for  her  to  give  up 
that  loved  one  whose  smile  and  childish  glee  were 
the  light  and  the  hope  of  her  heart.  As  she  lays 
it  in  the  cold,  damp  earth,  and  returns  to  her 
house  of  mourning,  and  there  contemplates  its 
empty  cradle,  and  that  silent  nursery,  once  glad- 
some with  its  mirth,  she  feels  the*  sinking  weight 
of  her  desolation.  No  light,  no  luxury,  no  friend, 
can  fill  the  place  of  her  lost  one. 

And  especially  if  this  lost  one  he  the  first-born, — 
the  first  bud  of  promise  and  of  hope,  how  doubly 
painful  is  the  bereavement.  It  makes  our  home 
as  dark  and  desolate  as  was  the  hour  when  Abra- 
ham with  uplifted  knife,  was  about  to  send  death 
to  the  throbbing  heart  of  his  beloved  Isaac.  Noth- 
ing can  supply  the  place  of  a  first-born  child ;  and 
home  can  never  be  what  it  was  when  the  sweet 
voice  of  that  first-born  child  was  heard.  The 
first  green  leaf  of  that  household  has  faded ;  and 
though  leaves  may  put  forth,  and  other  buds  of 
promise  may  unfold,  and  bright  faces  may  light 
up  the  home-hearth,  and  the  sunshine  of  hope 
may  play  around  the  heart ;  but — 

"  They  never  can  replace  the  bud  our  early  fondness  nurst, 
They  may  he  lovely  and  beloved,  but  not  like  thee — the  first !" 

Your  heart  continues  lonely  and  desolate ;  its 
strings  are  broken ;  its  tenderest  fibers  wrenched ; 
you  continue  to  steal  "beneath  the  church-yard 
tree,  where  the  grass  grows  green  and  wild,"  and 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  325 

there  weep  over  the  grave  of  your  first  maternal 
love;  and  like  Rachael,  refuse  to  be  comforted 
because  he  is  not.  Your  grief  is  natural,  and 
only  those  who  have  lost  their  first-born  can 
fully  realize  it : — 

"  Young  mother  !  what  can  feeble  friendship  say, 
To  soothe  the  anguish  of  this  mournful  day  ? 
They,  they  alone,  whose  hearts  like  thine  have  bled, 
Know  how  the  living  sorrow  for  the  dead ; 
I've  felt  it  all, — alas !  too  well  I  know 
How  vain  all  earthly  power  to  hush  thy  woe  ! 
God  cheer  thee,  childless  mother  !  'tis  not  given 
For  man  to  ward  the  blow  that  falls  from  heaven. 
I've  felt  it  all — as  thou  art  feeling  now  ; 
Like  thee,  with  stricken  heart  and  aching  brow, 
I've  sat  and  watched  by  dying  beauty's  bed, 
And  burning  tears  of  hopeless  anguish  shed ; 
I've  gazed  upon  the  sweet,  but  pallid  face, 
And  vainly  tried  some  comfort  there  to  trace ; 
I've  listened  to  the  short  and  struggling  breath ; 
I've  seen  the  cherub  eye  grow  dim  in  death ; 
Like  thee,  I've  veiled  my  head  in  speechless  gloom, 
And  laid  my  first-born  in  the  silent  tomb  !" 

Now  in  all  these  bereavements  of  the  Christian 
home  we  have  developed  the  wisdom  and  good- 
ness of  God ;  and  the  consideration  of  this  we  com- 
mend to  the  bereaved  as  a  great  comfort.  They 
are  but  the  execution  of  God's  merciful  design 
concerning  the  family,  rious  parents  can,  there- 
fore, bless  the  Lord  for  these  afflictions.  It  is 
often  well  for  both  you  and  your  children  that  be- 


326  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

reavements  come.  They  come  often  as  the  minis- 
ters of  grace.  The  tendency  of  home  is  to  con- 
fine its  supreme  affections  within  itself,  and  not 
yield  them  unto  God.  Parents  often  bestow  upon 
their  children  all  their  love,  and  live  for  them 
alone.  Then  God  lays  his  rod  upon  them,  takes 
their  loved  ones  to  his  own  arms,  to  show  them 
the  folly  of  using  them  as  abusing  them.  If  home 
had  no  such  bereavements,  eternity  would  be  lost 
sight  of;  God  would  not  be  obeyed;  souls  would 
be  neglected ;  natural  affection  would  crush  the 
higher  incentives  and  restraints  of  faith ;  earthly 
interests  would  push  from  our  hearts  all  spiritual 
concerns ;  and  our  tent-home  in  this  vale  of  tears 
would  be  substituted  for  our  heavenly  home.  "We 
see,  therefore,  the  benevolent  wisdom  of  God  in 
ordaining  bereavements  to  arrest  us  from  the  con- 
trol of  unsanctified  natural  affection.  When  we 
see  the  flowers  of  our  household  withered  and 
strewn  around  us ;  when  that  which  we  most 
tenderly  loved  and  clung  to,  is  taken  from  us  in 
an  unexpected  hour,  we  begin  to  see  the  futility 
of  living  for  earthly  interests  alone ;  and  we  turn 
from  the  lamented  dead  to  be  more  faithful  to  the 
cherished  and  dependent  living. 

Let  us,  therefore;  remember  that  in  all  our  afflic- 
tions God  has  some  merciful  design,  the  execution 
of  which  will  contribute  to  the  temporal  and  eter- 
nal welfare  of  our  home.  He  designs  either  to 
correct  us  if  we  do  wrong,  or  to  prevent  us  from 
doing  wrong,  or  to  test  our  Christian  fidelity,  or  to 
instruct  us  in  the  deep  mysteries  and  meandering 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


327 


ways  of  human  life,  and  keep  before  us  the  true 
idea  of  our  homes  and  lives  as  a  pilgrimage. 
Nothing,  save  supernatural  agencies,  so  effectu- 
ally removes  the  moral  film  from  our  intellectual 
eye  as  the  hand  of  bereavement.  Death  is  a  great 
teacher.  Sources  of  pensive  reflection  and  spirit- 
ual communion  are  opened,  which  none  but  death 
could  unseal.  A  proper  sense  of  the  spirit- wo  rid 
is  developed;  life  appears  in  its  naked  reality; 
heaven  gains  new  attractions ;  eternity  becomes  a 
holier  theme, — a  more  cheerful  object  of  thought ; 
the  true  rtlation  of  this  to  the  life  to  come,  is 
realized ;  and  the  presence  of  the  world  of  the 
unseen  enters  more  deeply  into  our  moral  con- 
sciousness. 

Though  our  loved  ones  are  gone,  they  are  still 
with  us  in  spirit;  yea,  they  are  ours  still,  in  the 
best  sense  of  possession ;  our  relationship  with 
them  is  not  destroyed,  but  hallowed.  Though 
absent,  they  still  live  and  love ;  and  they  come 
thronging  as  ministering  spirits  to  our  hearts; 
they  hover  near  us,  and  commune  with  us. 
Though  death  may  separate  us  from  them,  it 
does  not  disunite  us.  Your  departed  children, 
though  separated  from  you  in  bod}*,  are  still 
yours,  are  with  you  in  spirit,  and  are  members 
of  your  family.  They  represent  your  household 
in  heaven,  and  are  a  promise  that  you  will  be 
there  also.  You  are  still  their  parents ;  you  arc 
still  one  family, — one  in  spirit,  in  faith,  in  hope, 
in  promise,  in  Christ.  You  still  dwell  together 
in  the  fond  memories  of  home,  and  in  the  bright 


328  THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 

anticipation  of  a  coming  reunion  in  heaven.  Oh, 
with  this  view  of  death,  and  with  this  hope  of 
joining  love's  buried  ones  again,  you  can  gather 
those  that  yet  remain,  and  talk  to  them  of  those 
you  put,  cold  and  speechless,  in  their  bed  of  clay ; 
and  while  their  bodies  lie  exposed  to  the  winter's 
storm  or  to  the  summer's  heat,  you  can  point  the 
living  to  that  cheering  promise  which  spans,  as 
with  an  areole  of  glory,  the  graves  of  buried  love; 
you  can  tell  them  they  shall  meet  their  departed 
kindred  in  a  better  home.  Oh,  clasp  this  promise 
to  your  aching  heart ;  treasure  it  up  Jfe  a  pearl  of 
great  price.  Your  departed  children  are  not  lost 
to  you ;  and  their  death  to  them  is  great  gain. 
They  are  not  lost,  but  only  sent  before.  "  The 
Lord  has  taken  them  away."  "With  these  views 
of  death  before  you,  and  with  the  moral  instruc- 
tions they  afford,  you  cannot  but  feel  that  your 
children,  though  absent  from  you  in  bod}',  are  with 
you  in  spirit, — are  still  living  with  you  in  your 
household,  and  are  among  that  spirit-throng  which 
ever  press  around  you,  to  bear  you  up  lest  you 
dash  your  foot  against  a  stone.  Such*  were  the 
feelings  of  the  Christian  father,  as  expressed  in 
the  following  touching  lines  : — 

"  I  cannot  make  him  dead  ! 

When  passing  by  his  bed, 
So  long  watched  over  with  parental  care, 

My  spirit  and  my  eye 

Seek  it  inquiringly, 
Before  the  thought  comes  that — he  is  not  there  ! 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  329 

"When  at  the  clay's  calm  close, 

Before  we  seek  repose, 
I'm  with  his  mother,  offering  up  our  prayer, 

Whate'er  I  may  be  saying, 

I  am,  in  spirit,  praying 
For  our  boy's  spirit,  though — he  is  not  there ! 

Not  there  ?     Where,  then,  is  he  ? 

The  form  I  used  to  see 
Was  but  the  raiment  that  he  used  to  wear. 

The  grave,  that  now  doth  press 

Upon  that  cast-off  dress, 
Is  but  his  wardrobe  locked ; — he  is  not  there ! 

He  lives  !     In  all  the  past 

He  lives ;  nor,  to  the  last, 
Of  seeing  him  again  will  I  despair ; 

In  dreams  I  see  him  now, 

And  on  his  angel  brow, 
I  see  it  written,  '  Thou  shalt  see  mo  there  !' 

Yes,  we  all  live  to  God  ! 

Father,  thy  chastening  rod 
So  help  us,  thine  afflicted  ones,  to  bear, 

That  in  the  spirit-land, 

Meeting  at  thy  right  hand, 
'Twill  be  our  heaven  to  find  that — he  is  there  I" 

From  this  view  of  the  educational  principle 
involved  in  all  our  bereavements,  we  may  easily 
infer  that  God  designs  to  benefit  us  by  them. 
There  is  an  actual  usefulness  in  all  the  bereave- 
ments of  the  Christian  home.  They  are  but  the 
discipline  of  a  Father's  hand  and  the  ministration 
of  a  Father's  love.     Though  Ilis  face  may  wear  a 


330 


THE   CHRISTIAN   HOME. 


V 


dark  frown,  or  be  hid  behind  the  tempest-cloud, 
and  His  rod  may  be  laid  heavily  upon  you,  yet 
you  are  not  warranted  to  believe  that  no  sweet  is 
in  the  bitter  cup  you  drink,  that  no  light  shines 
behind  the  cloud,  or  that  no  good  dwells  in  the 
bursting  storm  around  you.  The  present  may 
indeed  be  dark;  but  the  future  will  be  bright  and 
laden  with  a  Father's  blessing.  The  smile  will 
succeed  the  frown ;  the  balm  will  follow  the  rod. 
The  good  seed  will  be  sown  after  the  deep  fur- 
rows are  made.  "  No  chastening  for  the  present 
seemeth  joyous,  but  grievous,  yet  it  worketh  out  a 
far  more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory  to 
them  that  are  exercised  thereby."  The  memory 
that  lingers  around  the  grave  of  our  loved  ones, 
is  sad  and  tearful.  The  stricken  heart  heaves 
with  emotions  too  big  for  utterance,  when  we  hear 
no  more  the  sound  of  their  accustomed  footsteps 
upon  the  threshold  of  our  door.  Oh,  the  cup  of 
bereavement  is  then  bitter,  its  hour  dark,  and  the 
pall  of  desolation  hangs  heavily  around  our  hearts 
and  homes. 

But  this  is  only  the  dark  side  of  bereavement. 
The  eye  which  then  weeps  may  fail  at  the  time 
to  behold  through  its  tears,  the  quickening,  soft- 
ening, subduing  and  resuscitating-power  which 
dwells  in  the  clouds  of  darkness  and  of  storm; 
and  the  heart,  wounded  and  bleeding,  too  often 
fails  to  realize  the  light  and  glory  which  loom  up 
from  the  grave.  But  when  we  look  upon  the 
cold,  pale  face  of  the  dead,  in  the  light  of  a  hope- 
ful resurrection ;  when  their  silent  forms  move  in 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


331 


the  light  of  those  saving  influences  which  have 
been  exerted  upon  us,  we  learn  the  necessity  of 
bereavement ;  the  mournful  cypress  will  become 
more  beautiful  than  the  palm  tree,  and  in  view  of 
its  saving  power  over  us,  we  can  say,  "  it  is  good 
for  us  that  we  have  been  afflicted !" 

"  The  path  of  sorrow,  and  that  path  alone, 
Leads  to  the  land  where  sorrow  is  unknown. 
No  traveler  e'er  reached  that  blest  abode, 
Who  found  not  thorns  and  briers  in  his  road. 
For  He  who  knew  what  human  hearts  would  prove, 
How  slow  to  learn  the  dictates  of  His  love ; 
That,  hard  by  nature  and  of  stubborn  will, 
A  life  of  ease  would  make  them  harder  still ; 
Called  for  a  cloud  to  darken  all  their  years, 
And  said,  '  Go,  spend  them  in  the  vale  of  tears !'  " 

Who  will  not  admit  that  it  is  an  act  of  real 
kindness  for  God  to  remove  little  children  from 
this  world,  and  at  once  take  them  as  His  own  in 
heaven  ?  This  is  surely  an  act  of  His  mercy,  nnd 
for  their  benefit.  It  arrests  them  from  the  perils 
and  tribulations  of  mature  life ;  it  makes  their 
pilgrimage  through  this  vale  of  tears,  of  short 
duration ;  they  escape  thereby  the  bitter  cup  of 
actual  sin,  and  the  mental  and  moral  agonies  of 
death.  It  is  well  with  them.  How  true  are  the 
following  beautiful  verses  on  the  death  of  chil- 
dren, from  the  pen  of  John  Q.  Adams : — 

"  Sure,  to  the  mansions  of  the  blest 
When  infant  innocence  ascends, 
Some  angel  brighter  than  the  rest 
The  spotless  spirit's  flight  attends. 


332  Till:    0HRI8TIAM    BOMI. 

On  winLr-  of  ecstasy  they  ri 

B      t  1-1  where  worlds  material  roll, 
Till  some  fair  Bister  of  the  si 

Receives  the  unpolluted  bouL 
TIuti!  at  the  Almighty  Father's  hand, 

Nearest  the  throne  of  living  ]i,Lrht, 
The  choirs  of  infant  seraphs  stand, 

And  dazzling  shine,  where  all  arc  bright  l" 

Christ  became  a  little  child,  that  little  chil- 
dren might  receive  the  crown  of  their  age  and 
be  eternally  Baved.    He  took  them  in  His  arms, 

blessed    them,  and  said,  "('1'  such  is  the  kingdom 

of  heaven.**  And  we  are  told  that  "out  of  the 
months  of  babes  and  Bucldings  lie  lias  ordained 
strength."  The  Bweetesl  hosannas  before  His 
throne,  doubtless  proceed  from  cherub-lips,  and 
they  glow  nearest  t<>  the  bright  vision  of  the  face 
of  unveiled  glory. 

"Calm  <>n  the  000000  <>f  thy  God, 

Young  spirits  I  rest  thee  now! 

Even  while  with  ns  thy  footsteps  trod, 

Hi-  seal  was  on  thy  brow." 

They  Btand  before  the  throne  in  white  robes, with 
palms  in  their  hands,  and  crowns  of  glory  on  their 

heads,  crying  out,  "Salvation  to  our  God,  which 
Bitteth  upon  the  throne,  and  unto  the  Lamb!" 
Tell  me  does  not  this  view  dilate  the  parent's 

heart,  and  make  him  thankful  that  he  has  a  saint- 
ed   child    in    heaven?      Weep   for  those  you   have 

with  you,  who  live  under  the  shades  of  a  moral 
death,  who  have  entered  upon  a  thorny  pilgrim- 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


833 


age,  and  are  exposed  to  the  ravages  of  sin;  oh, 
weep  for  them  ! — 

"  But  never  he  a  tear-drop  given 
To  those  thatrc*st  in  yon  hlue  heaven." 

The  sainted  dead  of  your  home  are  more  blessed 
than  the  pilgrim  living.  "Weep  not,  then,  that 
they  are  gone.  Their  early  departure  was  to  them 
great  gain.  Had  they  been  spared  to  grow  up  to 
manhood,  you  then  might  have  to  take  up  the 
lamentation  of  David,  "Would  to  God  I  had 
died  for  thee!"  While  they,  in  the  culprit's 
cell,  or  on  the  dying  couch  of  the  hopeless  im- 
penitent, would  respond  to  you  in  tones  of  deep- 
ening woe, — 

11  "Would  I  had  died  when  young  ! 
How  many  burning  tears, 
And  wasted  hopes  and  severed  ties, 
Had  spared  my  after  years  !" 

"Would  you,  then,  to  gratify  a  parent's  heart,  awake 
that  little  slumbcrer  from  its  peaceful  repose,  and 
recall  its  happy  spirit  from  its  realms  of  glory? 
There  the  light  of  heaven  irradiates  it;  its  visions 
are  unclouded  there  ;  and  from  those  battlements 
of  uncreated  glory  it  comes  to  thee  on  errands  of 
love  and  mercy.  Would  you,  now,  that  this  in- 
habitant of  heaven  should  be  degraded  to  earth 
again?  Would  you  remove  him  from  those  rivers 
of  delight  to  this  dry  and  thirsty  land?  Would 
not  this  be  cruel  ? 


304 


Tin:    OHBISTIAN    HOME. 


When,  therefore,  your  babe  Lb  taken  from  you, 
regard  it  as  a  kind  deed  of  your  heavenly  Ka- 
ther,  and  say,  "even  so  it  seemeth  good  in  thy 

sight:" 

"  Pour  not  the  voice  of  wr»e  ! 

Shed  not  a  burning  tear 
"When  spirits  from  the  cold  earth  go, 

Too  bright  to  linger  here  ! 
Unsullied  let  them  pass 

Into  oblivion's  tomb — 
Like  snow-flakes  melting  in  the  sea 

When  ripe  with  vestal  bloom. 
Then  strew  fresh  flowers  altove  the  grave, 

And  let  the  tall  frrass  o'er  it  wave." 


But  the  death  of  little  children  ia  a  great  mer- 
cy, not  only  to  themselves,  bnt  also  to  the  living. 
Those  that  remain  behind  are  greatly  benefited 
thereby.  It  exerts  a  sanctifying,  elevating  and  al- 
luring influence  over  them.  As  they  pass  in  their 
brighl  pathway  to  heaven,  they  leave  a  blessing 
behind.  <><><!  takes  them  in  goodness  to  us.  The 
interests  of  the  parents  are  not  different  from,  or 
opposed  t",  those  of  their  offspring.  The  happi- 
ness of  the  latter  i-  that  of  the  former.  J\'.  there- 
fore, their  death  is  their  blessing,  it  must  he  the 
parent's  blessing  also.     "  if  love,"'  says  Baxter, 

'•  teach  B  US  to  mourn  with  them  that  mourn,  ami 

rejoice  with  them  that  rejoice,  then  can  we  mourn 

for  those  of  our  children  that  are  possessed  of  the 

highest  everlasting  happiness?" 

It  i-  truey  their  sweet  faces^unfurrowed  by  guilt 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


335 


or  shame,  we  shall  never  more  gaze  upon ;  the 
sound  of  their  happy  lullaby  we  shall  never  again 
hear.  They  are  gone  now  to  the  spirit-land.  But 
a  parent's  care  and  solicitude  are  also  gone.  All 
alarm  for  their  safety  is  gone ;  and  you  now  re- 
joice in  the  assurance  that  they  have  gone  to  a 
higher  and  happier  home ;  and  can  joyfully  ex- 
claim now  with  Leigh  Richmond,  "My  child  is  a 
•saint  in  glory!"  His  infant  powers,  so  speedily 
paralyzed  hy  the  ruthless  hand  of  death,  arc  now 
expanding  themselves  amidst  the  untold  glories 
of  the  heavenly  world,  and  are  enlisted  now  in 
ministering  to  his  pilgrim  kindred  on  earth. 

It  is  true,  your  children  were  a  source  of  great 
joy  to  you  here.  Insensibly  did  they  entwine 
themselves  around  your  heart,  and  with  all  the 
wild  ecstasy  of  maternal  love,  you  embraced 
them,  as  they  attached  themselves,  like  the  slen- 
der vine,  to  you.  They  were  indeed,  the  life  and 
light  of  your  home,  and  the  deepest  joy  of  your 
heart,  But  if  they  had  lived,  might  they  not  also 
have  been  a  source  of  the  deepest  sorrow  and 
misery?  Might  the}-  not  have  drawn  your  souls 
from  God  and  heaven,  causing  you  to  live  alone 
for  them,  and  bringing  eventually  your  gray  hairs 
down  with  sorrow  to  the  grave? 

But  you  have  watched  at  their  dying  couch, 
and  seen  them  die;  and  in  that  death  }-ou  have 
also  seen  the  departure  of  all  such  fears  and  dan- 
gen.  They  arc  now  transplanted  to  a  more  con- 
genial clime,  where  they  will  bio. mi  forever  in 
unfading    loveliness,    and   from   which   they   will 


33G  THE    CHRISTIAN    IIOME. 

come   on    errands  of  ministering    love  to   your 
household : — 

"  They  come,  on  the  wings  of  the  morning  they  come, 
Impatient  to  lead  some  poor  wanderer  home  ; 
Some  pilgrim  to  snatch  from  his  stormy  abode, 

And  lay  him  to  rest  in  the  arms  of  his  God  !  " 

One  of  the  greatest  blessings  which  the  death  of 
our  pious  kindred  confers  upon  their  bereaved 
friends  is,  that  they  hold  a  saving  communion  with 
them,  and  are  ministering  spirits  sent  to  minister 
salvation  and  consolation  unto  them. 

"  The  saints  on  earth,  and  all  the  dead, 
But  one  communion  make." 

They  constitute  our  guardian  angels  ;  they  wit- 
our  Christian  race;  they  commune  with  our 
spirits;  they  link  US  to  the  spirit-world  ;  they  im- 
press  us  with  its  deep  mysteries ;  they  stimulate 
our  religious  life,  and  bear  us  up  lest  we  dash  our 
feel  against  the  pebble  which  Lies  in  our  pathway 
to  the  mansions  of  the  blest.  The  mother  who 
bends  in  the  deep  anguish  of  her  soul,  over  the 
little  grave  in  which  ber  infant  slumbers,  has  in 
heaven  a  cherub  spirit  to  minister  to  her.  And 
oh,  could  tin'  veil  which  wraps  the  spirit-world 
from  our  view,  be  now  removed,  and  we  permit- 
ted to  catch  a  glimpse  of  the  heavenly  scene  there 
displayed,  we  should  doubtless  behold  on  the 
threshold  of  that  better  home,   an  innumerable 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  337 

host  witnessing  with  intensity  of  interest,  the 
scenes  of  kuman  life  ;  and  no  doubt  to  you,  be- 
reaved friend,  the  most  conspicuous  among  that 
celestial  throng,  would  be  the  sainted  form  of 
that  dear  one  whose  grave  you  often  adorn  with 
the  warm  tribute  of  memory's  gushing  tears. 
And  oh,  could  you  understand  the  relation  in 
which  that  sainted  one  stands  to  you,  you  would 
doubtless  be  conscious  that  over  and  about  you  it 
hovers  from  day  to  day  as  your  guardian  spirit, 
watching  all  the  details  of  your  life,  soothing  the 
anguish  of  your  troubled  heart,  and  ministering 
unto  you  in  holy  things ! 

"The  spirits  of  the  loved  and  departed 

Are  with  us ;  and  they  tell  us  of  the  sky, 
A  rest  for  the  bereaved  and  broken-hearted, 

A  house  not  made  with  hands,  a  home  on  high ! 
They  have  gone  from  us,  and  the  grave  is  strong  ! 

Yet  in  night's  silent  watches  they  are  near ; 
Their  voices  linger  round  us,  as  the  song 

Of  the  sweet  skylark  lingers  on  the  ear." 

The  whole  dispensation  of  grace  is  like  the  lad- 
der set  up  on  earth,  whose  top  reached  heaven, 
and  upon  which  Jacob  saw  the  angels  ascending 
and  descending.  As  the  Christian  pilgrim  in  his 
spiritual  progression  mounts  each  round  of  this 
ladder,  he  finds  himself  in  the  midst  of  a  spirit- 
throng  ascending  and  descending  on  errands  of 
love  and  mercy  to  him;  yea,  the  canopy  of  the 
sky  seems  lined  with  so  gnat  a  cloud  of  witnesses 
and  ministering  spirits;  and  among  them  we  be- 
15 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


hold  <>ur  Minted  friends  bidding  us  climb  on  to 
their  lofty  abodes;  they  beckon  us  to  themselves; 

their  voices  animate  u>.  as  they  Bteal  down  apon 

OUT  spirits  in  solemn  and  beautiful  eadei 
"  Hark  !  heard  ye  not  a  Bound 

Sweeter  than  wild-hird's  Dote,  er  minstrel's  lay  ! 
I  know  that  niusie  well,  for  night  and  day 
I  hear  it  echoing  round. 

li  is  the  tuneful  chime 
Of  Bpirit-voioes ! — 'tis  my  infant  hand 
Calling  the  mourner  from  this  darkened  land 

To  joy's  unclouded  clime. 

My  beautiful,  my  blest  ! 
[  see  them  there,  by  the  great  Spirit's  throne; 
"With  winning  words,  and  fund  beseeching  tone. 

They  w(h>  me  t<>  in)  rest  '■  " 

Weeping  mother!  thai  Little  babe,  whoso  spirit 
has  been  borne  by  angels  to  heaven,  where  it  now 

glows  in  Visions  of  loveliness  around  God's  throne, 

comes  often  as  a  ministering  spirit  to  thee,  whis- 
peace  and  hope  to  thy  disconsolate  heart,  and 
with  its  tiny  hands  hears  thee  up  ill  thy  dark  and 
troubled  path!  And  my  dear  bereaved  young 
friend!  that  mother,  who  nursed  you  on  her  knee, 
who  taught  your  infant  lips  to  lisp  the  name  of 
Jesus,  and  amid  whose  prayers  you  have  grown 
up  lii  maturity, — that  sainted   mother  over  whose 

grave  you  have  often  wept  in  hitter  anguish,  hov- 
ers over  yon  now  with  all  the  passionate  fondness 
of  a  mother's  love,  guides  and  impresses  you,  at- 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


339 


tends  you  in  all  your  walks,  takes  charge  of  you 
in  all  your  steps ;  soothes  you  in  your  sorrows ; 
and  when  burning  with  fever  on  the  sick  bed, 
fans  you  with  angel  wing  and  breath,  and  warms 
your  chilled  nerves  with  an  angel's  heart! 

Now  •  when  we  regard  the  departed  of  our 
homes  in  this  light,  shall  we  not  admit  that  the 
death  of  those  who  go  to  heaven  is  a  blessing, 
not  only  to  them,  but  to  those  they  leave  behind! 
And  especially  when  we  remember  that  they  re- 
turn to  us  in  spirit  to  minister  to  our  wants  even 
unto  the  smallest  details  of  life,  that  they  are  our 
guardian  angels,  are  with  us  wherever  we  go,  to 
warn  and  deliver  us  from  temptation  and  danger, 
to  urge  us  in  the  path  of  duty,  to  smooth  our  pil- 
low when  thrown  upon  beds  of  languishing,  and 
then,  when  the  vital  spark  has  fled,  to  convey  us 
to  the  paradise  of  God, — oh,  when  we  remember 
this,  we  say,  shall  we  not  rather  bless  God  that 
He  has  afflicted  us  ?  Though  our  hearts  may  be 
lonely,  yet  with  this  view  of  the  departed  ones  of 
our  home,  we  can  feel  that  we  are,  nevertheless, 
not  alone. 


"I  am  not  quite  alone.     Around  me  glide 

Unnumbered  beings  of  the  unseen  world; — 
And  one  dear  spirit  hovering  by  my  side, 

Hath  o'er  my  form  it>  snow-white  wings  unfurled, 
It  is  a  token  that  when  death  a  nigh, 
It  then  will  wait  to  bear  my  soul  on  high  ! " 

What  afflicted  heart  will  not  respond  with  deep 
and  grateful  emotion,  to  the  following  beautiful 


340  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

address  of  a  bereaved  pilgrim  to  his  sainted  loved 
ones  in  heaven : — 

"  Gone  ! — have  ye  all  then  gone, — 

The  good,  the  beautiful,  the  kind,  the  dear? 
Passed  to  your  glorious  rest  so  swiftly  on, 
And  left  me  weeping  here  ! 

I  gaze  on  your  bright  track  ; 

I  hear  your  lessening  voices  as  they  go ; 
Have  ye  no  sign,  no  solace  to  fling  back 

To  those  who  toil  below  ? 

Oh  !  from  that  land  of  love, 

Look  ye  not  sometimes  on  this  world  of  wo  ? 
Think  ye  not,  dear  ones,  in  brighter  bowers  above, 

Of  those  you  left  below  ? 

Surely  ye  note  us  here, 

Though  not  as  we  appear  to  mortal  view, 
And  can  we  still,  with  all  our  stains,  be  dear 

To  spirits  pure  as  you? 

Is  it  a  fair,  fond  thought, 

That  you  may  still  our  friends  and  guardians  be ; 
And  heaven's  high  ministry  by  you  bo  wrought 

With  objects  low  as  we  ? 

May  we  not  secretly  hope, 

That  you  around  our  path  and  bed  may  dwell  ? 
And  shall  not  all  our  blessings  brighter  dro» 

From  hands  we  loved  so  well? 

Shall  we  not  feel  you  near 

In  hours  of  danger,  solitude,  and  pain, 

Cheering  the  darkness,  drying  off  the  tear, 
And  turning  loss  to  gain  ? 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  341 

Shall  not  your  gentle  voice 

Break  on  temptation's  dark  and  sullen  mood, 
Subdue  our  erring  will,  o'errule  our  choice, 

And  win  from  ill  to  good  ? 

Oh,  yes  !  to  us,  to  us, 

A  portion  of  your  converse  still  be  given ! 
Struggling  affection  still  would  hold  us  thus, 

Nor  yield  you  all  to  heaven  ! 

Lead  our  faint  steps  to  God  ; 

Be  with  us  while  the  desert  here  we  roam ; 
Teach  us  to  tread  the  path  which  you  have  trod, 

To  find  with  you  our  home  !  " 

What  a  comfort  docs  this  view  of  the  pious  dead 
afford  the  pious  living.  We  commend  it  now  to 
you.  What  consolation  to  the  bereaved  parents  is 
the  assurance  that  all  infants  are  saved!  This 
gives  them  "beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for 
mourning,  and  the  garment  of  praise  for  the  spirit 
of  heaviness."  Your  infant  has  gone  to  heaven; 
for  "of  such  is  the  kingdom  of  heaven."  Zuinlius 
was  perhaps  the  first  who  proclaimed  salvation  for 
all  who  died  in  infancy.  He  based  this  doctrine, 
so  comforting  to  the  afflicted  parent,  upon  the 
atonement  of  Christ  for  all ;  and  he  believed  that 
Christ  made  provision  for  infants  in  this  general 
atonement  or  redemption  of  human  nature.  This 
is  the  general  belief  now.  Calvin  declared  that 
"God  adopts  infants  and  washes  them  in  the  blood 
of  his  son,"  and  that  "they  are  regarded  by  Christ 
as  among  His  flock."  Dr.  Junkin  says,  "It  is  not 
inconsistent  with  any  doctrine  of  the  bible,  that 


842  THE    CHRISTIAN    BOMS. 

the  .»"ul>  of  deceased  infants  go  to  heaven."  X>  w- 
ton  Bays,  "1  hope  you  art-  both  well  reconciled  to 
the  death  of  your  child,  [ndeed,  I  t:in  i  »<  >t  be  sorry 
for  the  death  of  infants.  Bow  many  storms  <!>> 
they  escape!  Nor  can  I  doubt,  in  my  private 
judgment,  thai  they  are  included  in  the  election 
i>{  grace."  This  is  the  opinion,  too,  of  all  evan- 
gelical branches  of  the  Christian  church.  If  so, 
you  have  here  a  source  of  great  consolation. 

"  Though  it  be  hard  to  bid  thy  heart  divide, 
And  lay  the  gem  of  all  thy  love  aside — 

Faith  tells  thee,  and  it  tells  thee  m>t   in  vain, 
That  thou  shalt  meet  thy  infant  yet  again." 

What,  oh,  what,  it'  you  Lad  not  the  assurance 
of  the  salvation  of  all  infants?  What  it'  your 
faith  would  tell  yon  thai  all  children  who  die  be- 
fore they  can  exercise  faith  would  be  lost  or  anni- 
hilated! Then  indeed  you  might  well  refuse  to 
omforted  because  they  are  not.  But  your 
child  is  not  lost, — bul  only  removed  to  a  better 
home: — 

"  \  treason  bul  removed] 
A  bright  bird  parted  for  a  clearer  day — 

fours  still  in  heaven  !  " 

And  yours  to  meet  there  !  The  hope  of  a  glo- 
rious reunion  with  departed  friends  in  heaven, 
lifts  the  afflicted  christian  into  regions  of  happi- 
ness never  before  enjoyed.  And  as  he  contem- 
plates their  better  state,  and  muses  over  the  trials 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS. 


343 


and  sorrows  of  his  pilgrim  land,  he  longs  to  pass 
over  the  stream  which  divides  that  happy  home 
from  this.  He  is  grateful  to  God  that  heaven  has 
thus  become  doubly  attractive  by  his  bereave- 
ment, and  that  he  can  look  forward  with  fond  an- 
ticipation, to  the  time  when  he  shall  there  become 
reunited  with  those  who  have  gone  before, 

"  Oil !  I  could  weep 
With  very  gratitude  that  thou  art  saved — 
Thy  soul  forever  saved.     What  though  my  heart 
Should  hleed  at  every  pore — still  thou  art  hlessed. 
There  is  an  hour,  my  precious  innocent, 
When  we  shall  meet  again  !   Oh  !  may  we  meet 
To  separate  no  more.     Yes  !  I  can  smile, 
And  sing  with  gratitude,  and  weep  with  joy, 
Even  while  my  heart  is  breaking !  " 

"We  infer  from  the  whole  subject,  that  we  should 
not  murmur  against  God  when  afflicted,  however 
great  our  bereavements  may  be.  This  does  not, 
of  course,  forbid  godly  sorrow  and  tears.  It  is 
not  inconsistent  to  weep ;  neither  does  sorrow 
for  the  dead,  as  such,  imply  a  murmuring  spirit. 
Christ  himself  invited  to  tears  when  he  wept  over 
the  grave  of  his  friend  Lazarus.  It  is  meet  that 
we  pay  our  tribute  to  departed  kindred,  in  falling 
tears.  These  are  not  selfish  ;  neither  is  the  sor- 
row they  express,  a  sin,  nor  an  evidence  of  filial 
distrust,  or  of  relnetant  submission  to  the  will  of 
God.  The  unfeeling  stoic  may  regard  it  such; 
but  he  outrages  the  generous  impulses  of  hu- 
manity.    Undefiled  religion  does  not  aim  to  can- 


344  TIIE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

ccl  natural  affection.  Our  piety,  if  genuine,  -will 
not  make  us  guilty  of  crimes  against  nature,  and 
prompt  us  to  bend  with  apathy  over  the  grave  of 
buried  love.  The  mother  of  Jesus  wept  her 
pungent  woes  beneath  the  Cross;  and  the  Marys 
drop*  the  tear  of  sorrowing  love  and  memory  at 
the  mouth  of  his  sepulchre.  And  shall  we  refuse 
the  tribute  of  sorrow  to  the  memory  of  those 
dear  ones  who  sleep  beneath  the  sod  ?  To  do  so 
would  but  unchristianize  the  deep  grief  which 
bereavement  awakens,  and  which  true  piety  sanc- 
tifies ;  it  would  unhumanize  the  very  constitution 
of  home  itself.  To  be  Christians,  must  the  un- 
numbered memories  of  life  be  all  without  a  tear? 
When  we  walk  in  the  family  grave-yard,  and 
think  of  the  loved  who  slumber  there;  when  we 
open  the  family  bible,  and  read  there  the  names 
of  those  who  have  gone  before  us,  say,  shall  this 
awaken  no  slumbering  grief,  invite  no  warm, 
gushing  tears,  and  not  bear  us  back  to  scenes  of 
tenderness  and  love  ? 

Ah,  no  !  The  gospel  encourages  godly  sorrow 
over  the  dead.  "We  are  permitted  to  sorrow, 
only  not  as  those  who  have  no  hope,  as  not  being 
cast  down,  and  as  not  being  disquieted-  within 
us.  Such  godly  sorrow  is  refreshing,  and  the 
tears  it  sheds  are  a  balm  to  the  wounded  spirit. 
They  refine  our  sentiments,  and  beget  longings 
after  a  better  country.  The  memory  of  bereaved 
a  fleet  ion  is  grief.  In  traversing  the  past,  our 
thoughts  glide  along  a  procession  of  dear  events 
arrested  by  the  tomb ;    and  we  become  sad  and 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  CiO 

weep.  But  this  is  not  inconsistent  with  a  confid- 
ing faith  in  God,  nor  with  a  meek  resignation  to 
His  afflicting  providence.  Faith  was  not  designed 
to  overpower  a  visible  privation.  "When  death 
enters  our  home  we  should  feel  pungently,  though 
we  have  the  faith  of  an  angel,  and  weep  before 
the  smile  of  God.  The  evidences  of  faith,  and 
the  brilliant  idealities  of  hope  will  hush  the  voice 
of  murmur,  and  incite  us  to  kiss  the  rod  that  is 
laid  upon  us. 

It  is,  therefore,  a  Christian  privilege  to  weep 
over  the  death  of  our  departed  kindred,  yea,  who 
can  stifle  the  anguish  of  the  heart  when  the  ten- 
der flowers  of  home  sink  into  the  waxen  form  of 
death?  when  the  flickering  flame  (*f  infant  life 
burns  lower  and  weaker ;  when  the  death-glazed 
eye  is  closed,  and  the  little  bosom  heaves  no 
more,  and  that  lovely  form  becomes  cold  as  the 
grave,  what  parental  heart  can  then  remain  un- 
moved, and  what  eye  can  then  forbid  a  tear?  Not 
even  the  assurance  of  infant  salvation  and  the 
hope  of  reunion  in  heaven,  can  prevent  sorrow 
for  the  dead. 

"  To  think  his  child  is  hlest  above, 
To  pray  their  parting  grief, 
These,  these  may  soothe,  but  death  alone, 
Can  heal  a  father's  grief." 

But  this  grief  should  never  amount  to  dissatis- 
faction with  God.     Though  it  is  right  to  weep,  it 
is  wrong   to   murmur.     Many   parents  mnrmur- 
*15 


340  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

ingly  mourn  the  loss  of  their  children,  and  in 
wrestling  with  God  to  spare  them,  betray  the 
want  of  a  true  submission  to  His  will.  It  is  sin- 
ful to  murmur  at  the  decrees  of  God.  We  have 
seen  that  they  are  wise,  and  all  designed  tor  our 
good.  Methinks  if  your  dying  babe  could  re- 
spond to  your  murmuring  sighs  and  tears  around 
its  crib,  it  would  thus  reprove  you: — 

"  Nay,  mother,  fix  not  thus  on  mo 

That  streaming  eye, 
And  clasp  not  thus  my  freezing  hand ; 

For  I  must  die. 
To  Him  ye  gave  the  opening  hud, 

The  early  hloom ; 
Then  grieve  not  that  the  ripened  fruit 

He  gathers  home." 

But  we  should  not  only  refrain  from  murmur- 
ing,  bul  meekly  submit  to  the  providential  afflic- 
tions of  our  home.  We  should  remember  that 
all  the  adversities  of  life  are  from  the  Lord,  and 
thai  when  death  invades  our  household,  and 
crushes  the  fond  hopes  of  our  hearts,  it  is  for. 
some  wise;  and  good  purpose.  Though  we  may 
not  understand  it  here,  where  we  look  through 
a  glass  darkly ;  hut  eternity  will  reveal  it.  Though 
the  living  of  a  child  is  like  tearing  a  limb  from 
as;  hut  remember  God  demands  it.  Surrender 
it  to  Him,  therefore,  with  Christian  resignation. 
He  does  noi  demand  it  without  a  cause.  It  may 
offend  thee,  though  it  he  a  right  hand  or  a  right 
eye.      Let   the    branch   he  cut   off.      At  the   resur- 


ITS    BEREAVEMENTS.  347 

rection  you  shall  see  it  again.  Give  it  up  wil- 
lingly ;  for  it  is  the  Lord's  will  that  you  should. 
Hate  the  meek  submission  to  exclaim,  "Not  my 
will,  but  Thine  be  done ! "  Whatever  may  be 
your  pleas  to  the  contrary,  they  are  all  selfish  ; 
when  you  come  to  look  at  your  bereavement, 
with  the  candid,  discerning  eye  of  faith,  you  can- 
not murmur ;  but  will  bend  under  the  stroke  with 
silent  tears  and  with  grateful  submission.  Faith 
in  God,  the  hope  of  reunion  in  heaven,  and  true 
Christian  love  for  the  object  taken  from  us,  will 
effectually  quell  every  uprising  of  complaint  in 
our  hearts : — 

"  My  stricken  heart  to  Jesus  yields 
Love's  deep  devotion  now, 

Adores  and  blesses — while  it  bleeds— 
His  hand  that  strikes  the  blow. 

Then  fare  thee  well-^-a  little  while- 
Life's  troubled  dream  is  past ; 

And  I  shall  meet  with  thee,  my  child, 
In  life — in  bliss,  at  last !  " 


CHAPTER   XXVII. 

THE    MEMORIES    OF   HOME.* 

"  Tue  home  of  my  youth  stands  in  silence  and  sadness; 

None  that  tasted  its  simple  enjoyments  are  there ; 
No  longer  its  walls  ring  with  glee  and  with  gladness ; 

No  strain  of  blithe  melody  breaks  on  the  ear. 

Why,  memory,  cling  thus  to  life's  jocund  morning? 

"Why  point  to  its  treasures  exhausted  too  soon  ? 
Or  tell  that  the  buds  of  the  heart  at  the  dawning, 

Were  destined  to  wither  and  perish  at  noon  ? 
On  the  past  sadly  musing,  oh  pause  not  a  moment ; 

Could  we  live  o'er  again  but  one  bright  sunny  day, 
'Twere  better  than  ages  of  present  enjoyment, 

In  the  memory  of  scenes  that  have  long  passed  away. 
But  time  ne'er  retraces  the  footsteps  he  measures ; 

In  fancy  alone  with  the  past  we  can  dwell ; 

Then  take  my  last  blessing,  loved  scene  of  young  pleasures ; 

Dear  homo  of  my  childhood — forever  farewell !" 

Chief  Justice  Gibson. 

The  bereavements  of  home  fill   up   the   urn 

of  memory   with   its   most   hallowed   treasures. 

Though  these  memories  of  the  household  have 

*  In  this,  as  in  the  preceding  chapter,  we  have  introduced 
poetry,  for  the  same  reason. 


MEMORIES    OF    HOME.  349 

an  alloy  of  sorrow  and  arc  the  product  of  its  ad- 
versities, yet  there  is  no  pleasure  so  delicate,  bO 
pure,  so  painful,  so  much  longed  after,  as  that 
which  they  afford.  They  bring  to  our  hearts  the. 
purest  essence  of  the  past,  and  cause  us  to  live  it 
over  again.  They  come  over  us  like  the  "  breath 
of  the  sweet  south  breathing  over  a  bed  of  vio- 
lets." When  we  revert  to  the  happy  scenes  cf 
our  childhood,  we  live  amid  them  in  spirit  again, 
and  remembrance  swells  with  many  a  proof  of 
recollected  love;  sweet  ideals  of  all  that  lived 
under  the  parental  roof  spring  up  within  us,  and 
pass  before  us  in  visions  of  delight ;  the  home  of 
the  past  becomes  the  home  of  the  present.  The 
things  of  that  home  are  spiritualized  and  chahgod 
into  the  thoughts  of  home  ;  we  enjoy  them  again  ; 
and  we  live  our  life  over  again  with  those  we  loved 
the  most. 

"Why  in  age 
Do  we  revert  so  fondly  to  the  walks 
Of  childhood,  but  that  there  the  soul  discerns 
The  dear  memorial  footsteps,  unimpaired, 
Of  her  own  native  vigor ;  thence  can  hear 
Reverberations,  and  a  choral  song 
Commingling  with  the  incense  that  ascends, 
Undaunted,  towards  the  imperishable  heavens, 
From  her  own  lonely  altar  V" 

The  memories  of  home  are  both  pleasing  and 
painful.  When  we  leave  the  parental  home  for 
some  distant  land,  how  many  pleasing  recollec- 
tions sweep  over  our  spirits  then.     Even  when 


350  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

tossed  to  and  fro  upon  the  angry  wave,  far  from 
our  native  land, 

"  There  conies  a  fond  memory 
Of  borne  o'er  the  deep." 

The  memory  of  departed  worth  is  a  kind  of  com- 
pensation for  the  loss  we  sustain.  The  pious  moth- 
er's recollection  of  her  sainted  husband  or  child 
becomes  the  soother  of  her  grief,  and  casts  a  pleas- 
ing light  along  her  pathway,  and  awakens  a  new 
joy  in  her  widowed  heart.  Pious  memories,  when 
they  reflect  the  hope  of  reunion  in  heaven,  are  like 
the  radiant  sky  studded  with  brilliant  stars,  each 
shining  through  the  clouds  which  move  alone;  the 
verge  of  the  horizon.  They  sweep  as  gently  over 
the  troubled  heart  as  the  summer  zephyr  over  the 
blushing  rose,  touching  all  the  chords  of  holy  feel- 
ing, making  them  vibrate  sadly  sweet,  in  blended 
tones,  too  sweet  to  last. 

"  Here  a  deeper  and  serener  charm 

To  all  is  given, 
And  blessed  memories  of  the  faithful  dead 
O'er  wood  and  vale,  and  meadow-stream  have  shed 

The  holy  hues  of  heaven." 

How  indelibly  does  memory  paint  the  image  of  a 
departed  child  upon  the  mother's  heart!  No  flight 
of  years;  no  distance  from  the  grave  in  which  he 
slumbers,  can  erase  the  image.  It  will  be  ever 
fresh,  and,  with  awakening  power,  mingle  with 
her  tears  and  glow  in  her  fondest  hopes.  Though 
time  and  distance  and  vicissitudes  may  calm  her 


MEMORIES    OF   HOME.  351 

troubled  heart,  and  cause  her  to  settle  down  into 
tranquility  of  feeling ;  but  these  can  never  destroy 
the  tenacity  and  vividness  of  her  memory.  Even 
then  those  objects  to  which  it  fondly  clings,  be, 
come  the  theme  of  her  holiest  and  her  happiest 
thoughts;  and  she  retains  them  with  a  passionate 
ardor,  exceeded  only  by  that  with  which  she  clung 
to  the  living  child.  Her  greatest  pleasure  is,  to 
retire  from  the  busy  cares  of  the  world,  to  some 
solitude  where  she  may  sit  among  flowers  that  re- 
mind her  of  the  one  that  withered  in  her  arms, 
and  meditate  upon  him  who  slumbers  beneath  the 
clods  of  the  valley.  Oh,  these  arc  sweet  and  pre- 
cious moments  to  her;  and  the  tears  which  are 
then  drawn  from  the  deep  well-springs  of  remi- 
niscence, are  sacred  to  him  with  whom  she  in 
spirit  there  communes.  There  with  rapture  she 
remembers 

"  All  his  winning  ways, 
His  pretty,  playful  smiles, 
His  joy,  his  ecstasy, 
His  tricks,  his  mimicry, 
And  all  his  little  wiles; 
Oh  !  these  are  recollections 
Round  mothers'  hearts  that  cling — 
That  mingle  with  the  tears 
And  smiles  of  after  years, 
With  oft  awakening !" 

Memory  links  together  the  loved  ones  of  home, 
though  they  be  widely  separated  from  each  other, 
some  on  earth,  and  some  in  eternity.  There  is 
a  mystic  chain  which  binds  them  together,  and 


852 


THE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


brings  thorn  in  spirit  near  to  each  other  and  in- 
fuses, as  it  were,  with  electric  power,  a  realizing 
sense  of  each  other,  while  their  past  life  under  the 
same  roof,  "like  shadows  o'er  them  sweep."  In 
the  light  of  memory  their  faded  tonus  are  vividly 
brought  back  to  view;  they  see  each  other  as  when 
they  rambled  over  their  childhood  haunts ;  and  the 
echo  of  their  playful  mirth  comes  booming  back 
in  deep  reverberations  through  their  souls.  In 
this  respect  the  memory  of  the  dead  is  a  pleasure 
so  deep  and  delicate,  and  withal  so  melancholy, 
yea,  so  painful,  that  the  heart  shrinks  from  its 
intensity.  This  we  experience  when  we  ramble 
through  the  family  graveyard,  and  bring  within 
the  sweep  of  recollection  our  past  communion 
with  the  loved  who  slumber  there.  There  is  a 
mysterious  feeling  awakened  in  our  hearts,  —  a 
feeling  of  peculiar  melancholy,  which  combines 
two  opposite  emotions, — that  of  pleasure  and  that 
of  pain.  These  seem  to  embrace  each  other,  and 
their  union  in  onr  hearts  affords  us  a  strange  enjoy- 
ment. \\re  enjoy  the  pain;  the  agony  awakened 
by  the  remembrance  of  those  who  lie  beneath  the 
sod  is  pleasing  to  us.  It  is  a  bitter  cup  we  love  to 
Hi  11k  ;  we  love  to  keep  open  the  wounds  there  in- 
flicted. The  sadness  we  then  feel  we  dearly  cher- 
ish ;  and  we  linger  around  these  tombs  as  if  bound 
to  them  by  some  mystic  chord  wro  could  not  break  ; 
we  are  loth  to  leave  a  spot  in  which  are  accumula- 
ted the  fondest  associations  of  early  life.  "Would 
the  mother,  if  she  could,  forget  the  child  that  slum- 
bers beneath  the  flower-crowned  sod  of  the  family 


MEMORIES    OP   HOME.  353 

cemetery?  *4 "Where,"  in  the  beautiful  language 
of  Irving,  "  is  the  child  that  would  willingly  for- 
got the  most  tender  of  parents,  though  to  remem- 
ber be  but  to  lament?  "Who,  even  in  the  hour 
of  agony,  would  forget  the  friend  over  whom  he 
mourns?  Who,  even  when  the  tomb  is  closing 
upon  the  remains  of  her  he  most  loved  and  he 
feels  his  heart,  as  it  were,  crushed  in  the  closing 
of  its  portals,  would  accept  consolation  that  was 
to  be  bought  by  forgetfulness  ?  And  when  the 
overwhelming  burst  of  grief  is  calmed  into  the 
gentle  tear  of  recollection,  when  the  sudden  an- 
guish and  the  convulsive  agony  over  the  present 
ruins  of  all  that  we  most  loved,  is  softened  away 
into  pensive  meditation  on  all  that  it  was  in  the 
days  of  its  loveliness,  who  would  root  out  such  a 
sorrow  from  the  heart  ?  Though  it  may  some- 
times throw  a  passing  cloud  even  over  the  bright 
hour  of  gaycty,  yet  who  would  exchange  it  even 
for  the  song  of  pleasure  or  the  burst  of  revelry  ? 
No ;  there  is  a  voice  from  the  tomb  sweeter  than 
song ;  there  is  a  recollection  of  the  dead  to  which 
we  turn  even  from  the  charms  of  the  living !" 
How  passionately  we  cling  to  those  memories  of 
a  sainted  mother,  which  crowd  in  rapid  succession 
upon  our  minds ! 

"  Weep  not  for  her  !     Her  memory  is  the  shrine 

Of  pleasing  thoughts,  soft  as  the  scent  of  flowers, 
Calm  as  on  windless  eve  the  sun's  decline, 

Sweet  as  the  song  of  birds  among  the  bowers." 

"What  a  purifying  and  restraining  influence  does 


354 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


the  memory  of  a  pious  parent's  love,  exert  upon 
the  wayward  child  !  When  he  bends  in  mournful 
recollection  over  the  grave  of  a  sainted  mother, 
how  must  every  heart-string  break,  and  with  what 
remorse  he  reviews  his  past  life  of  wickedness  and 
filial  disobedience.  The  memory  of  that  mother's 
love  and  kindness  to  him,  haunts  him  in  all  his 
revels,  and  draws  him  back,  as  if  by  magnetic 
force,  from  scenes  of  riot  and  of  ruin.  Can  he 
think  of  that  mother's  prayers  and  teachings  and 
tears  of  solicitude,  and  not  feel  deeply,  and  often 
savingly,  his  own  guilt  and  ingratitude  ?  If  there 
is  a  memory  of  home-life  which  allures  him  to 
heaven,  it  is  the  recollection  of  her  love  and  pious 
efforts  to  save  him. 

The  child  who  lives  in  exile  from  his  country 
and  his  homo,  is  soothed  in  the  midst  of  his  cares 
and  disappointments,  by  the  stirring  imagery  of 
his  far-distant  friends  and  home.  And  oh,  if  he 
has  been  unfaithful  to  the  ministrations  of  that 
home ;  if  he  has  trodden  under  foot  the  proffered 
love  of  his  parents,  and  repulsed  all  the  overtures 
of  their  pious  solicitude,  will  not  the  memory  of 
their  anguish  haunt  his  soul,  and  plough  deep' fur- 
rows of  remorse  in  his  conscience  ?  The  sense  of 
past  filial  ingratitude,  and  the  recollection  of  a  par- 
rut  "s  injured  love  and  disappointed  hope,  consti- 
tute one  of  the  most  powerful  incentives  to  repent- 
ance and  reformation.  It  was  thus  with  the  prod- 
igal son.  As  soon  as  he  came  to  himself,  he  re- 
membered the  dear  home  of  his  youth,  the  kind 
love  of  his  father,  and  his  own  unworthincss  and 


MEMORIES    OF    HOME.  355 

ingratitude;  and  this  brought  him  to  repentance 
and  to  the  resolution  to  return  to  his  father,  con- 
fess his  sin,  and  seek  pardon.  How  many  now,  in 
thus  looking  back  upon  the  home  of  their  child- 
hood, do  not  remember  their  abuse  of  parental 
love  and  kindness ! 

"  Oh  !  in  our  stern  manhood,  when  no  ray 
Of  earlier  sunshine  glimmers  on  our  way; 
When  girt  with  sin  and  sorrow,  and  the  toil 
Of  cares,  which  tear  the  bosom  that  they  soil ; 
Oh !  if  there  be  in  retrospection's  chain 
One  link  that  knits  us  with  young  dreams  again- 
One  thought  so  sweet  we  scarcely  dare  to  muse 
On  all  the  hoarded  raptures  it  reviews ; 
Which  seems  each  instant,  in  its  backward  range, 
The  heart  to  soften,  and  its  ties  to  change, 
And  every  spring  untouched  for  years  to  move, 
It  is — the  memory  of  a  mother's  love  !" 

TTe  see,  therefore,  that  there  are  painful,  as  well 
as  pleasant,  memories  of  home.  When  the  ab- 
sent disobedient  child  remembers  how  he  abused 
the  privileges  of  the  parental  home,  and  brought 
the  gray  hairs  of  his  parents  down  with  sorrow  to 
the  grave,  and  turned  that  household  into  a  deso- 
lation ;  when 

"  Pensive  memory  lingers  o'er 
Those  scenes  to  be  enjoyed  no  more, 
•  Those  scenes  regretted  ever," 

how  dark  and  painful  must  be  the  shadows  which 
then  sweep  over  his  penitent  spirit !  "  If  thou  art 
a  child,  and  hast  ever  added  a  sorrow  to  the  soul 


356 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


or  a  furrow  to  the  silvered  brow  of  an  affectionate 
parent;  if  thou  art  a  husband,  and  hast  ever 
caused  the  fond  bosom  that  ventured  its  whole 
happiness  in  thy  arms,  to  doubt  one  moment  of 
thy  kindness  or  tlry  truth;  if  thou  art  a  friend, 
and  hast  ever  wronged  the  spirit  that  generously 
confided  in  thee;  if  thou  art  a  lover,  and  hast 
ever  given  one  unmerited  pang  to  that  true  heart 
that  now  lies  cold  and  still  beneath  thy  feet ;  then 
be  sure  that  every  unkind  look,  every  ungracious 
word,  every  ungentle  action,  will  come  throng- 
ing back  upon  thy  memory;  then  be  sure  that 
thou  wilt  lie  down  sorrowing  and  penitent  on  the 
grave !" 

If  we  would  avoid  the  agony  of  declining  age, 
let  us  be  faithful  to  our  childhood-home.  What 
must  be  the.  anguish  of  that  wretch  who  has 
brought  infamy  upon  it;  how  painful  must  be 
every  recollection  of  it,  when  in  the  distance  of 
years  and  of  space,  from  its  scenes  and  its  loved 
ones,  his  remembrance  hails  them  with  its  burning 
tear. 


"lam  far  from  the  home  that  gave  me  birth, 

A  hlight  is  on  my  name  ; 
It  only  brings  to  my  father's  hearth 

The  memory  of  shame  ; 
Yet,  oh  !  do  they  think  of  me  to-day, 

The  loved  ones  lingering  there ;       • 
Do  they  think  of  the  outcast  far  away, 

And  breathe  for  me  a  prayer? 
That  early  home  I  shall  sec  no  more, 

And  I  wish  not  there  to  go, 


MEMORIES    OF    HOME.  357 

For  the  happy  past  may  nought  restore — 

The  future  is  but  woe. 
But  'twould  be  a  balm  to  my  heavy  heart 

Upon  its  dreary  way, 
If  I  could  think  I  have  a  part 

In  the  prayers  of  home  to-day  !" 

Every  thing  within  the  memory  of  home  will 
question  our  hearts  whether  we  have  been  faith- 
ful to  her  parental  ministry.  Every  cherished 
association;  every  remembered  object,  and  even 
the  old  scenes  and  object*  around  the  homestead, 
will  challenge  our  faithfulness.  The  trees  under 
whose  shade  we  frolicked  and  of  whose  fruit  we 
ate;  the  streams  that  meandered  through  the 
meadow;  the  hills  and  groves  over  which  we 
gamboled  in  the  sunny  days  of  childhood;  the 
old  oaken  bucket  and  the  old  ancestral  walls  that 
yet  stand  as  monuments  of  the  past, — these  will 
all  question  your  fidelity  to  the  training  you  re- 
ceived in  their  midst ;  and  oh,  if  they  assume,  in 
the  courts  of  memory,  the  attitude  of  witnesses 
against  you  ;  if  nursery  recollections  speak  of  for- 
gotten prayers  and  abandoned  habits,  what  a  dee}) 
and  painful  sense  of  guilt  and  ingratitude  will  this 
testimony  develop  in  your  bosom,  and 

"  Darken'd  and  troubled  you'll  come  at  last, 
To  the  home  of  your  boyish  glee." 

How  precious  are  the  mementoes  of  home! 
Memory  needs  such  auxiliaries.  That  lock  of 
silken  hair  which  the  mother  holds  with  tearful 
contemplation,  and  wears  as  a  precious  relic,  near 


358  THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 

her  heart,  what  recollections  of  the  buried  one  it 
awakens  within  her ! 

"  Thou  bringest  fond  memories  of  a  gentle  girl, 
Like  passing  spirits  in  a  summer  night ! 
Oh,  precious  curl !" 

And  that  picture  of  a  departed  mother  which  the 
orphan  child  presses  with  holy  reverence  to  her 
bosom !  As  she  gazes  upon  those  familiar  fea- 
tures, and  reads  in  them  a  mother's  love  and 
kindness,  what  scenes  of  home-life  rise  upon  the 
troubled  thought,  and  what  echoes  of  love  come 
through  the  lapse  of  years  from  the  old  home- 
stead, touching  all  the  fires  of  her  soul,  and  caus- 
ing them  to  thrill  with  plaintive  sadness  and  with 
painful  joy.  What  mementoes  of  a  sad,  yet  pleas- 
ing memory  are  found  in  the  chamber  of  bereave- 
ment, where  death  has  done  his  work ;  the  empty 
chair;  the  garments  laid  by;  playthings  idly  scat- 
tered there ; — these  are  pictures  upon  which  the 
eye  of  memory  rests  with  pensive  meditation. 
And  our  letters  from  home !  What  sweet  recol- 
lections they  awaken  as  we  read  line  after  line ; 
and  what  volumes  of  love  they  contain  from  those 
dear  ones  who  now  moulder  in  the  narrow  vaults 
of  death  !  Oh,  how  miserable  must  he  be  who  has 
no  recollections  of  home,  who  is  not  able  to  revert 
to  the  scenes  of  childhood,  and  amid  whose  cher- 
ished memories  of  life,  the  image  of  a  mother  does 
not  glow ! 

Let  us  lay  the  foundation  of  a  joyful,  grateful 
memory.     Let  us  be  faithful  to  home,  that  when 


MEMORIES    OF    HOME.  359 

I 

we  leave  it,  and  when  the  members  of  it  leave  us, 
we  may  delight  in  all  the  memories  which  loom 
up  from  the  scenes  of  home-life : 

"  Oh,  friends  regretted,  scenes  forever  dear, 
Remembrance  hails  you  with  her  burning  tear  ! 
Drooping  she  bends  o'er  pensive  fancy's  urn, 
To  trace  the  hours  which  never  can  return ; 
Yet  with  retrospection  loves  to  dwell, 
And  soothe  the  sorrows  of  her  last  farewell  l" 


CHAPTER   XXVIII. 

THE   ANTITYPE   OF   THE   CHKISTIAN   HOME. 

"  Oir,  talk  to  me  of  heaven  !     I  love 
To  hear  about  my  home  above ; 
For  there  doth  many  a  loved  one  dwell 
In  light  and  joy  ineffable. 

O  !  tell  me  how  they  shine  and  sing, 
While  every  harp  rings  echoing, 
And  every  glad  and  tearless  eye 
Beams  like  the  bright  sun  gloriously. 

Tell  me  of  that  victorious  palm, 

Each  hand  in  glory  beareth  ; 
Tell  me  of  that  celestial  calm, 

Each  face  in  glory  weareth  !  " 


The  Christian  home  on  earth  is  but  a  type  of 
his  better  home  in  heaven.  The  pious  members 
feel  the  force  of  this.  Every  thing  within  their 
earthly  homes  reminds  them  of  that  happy  coun- 


ITS    ANTITYPE. 


361 


try  which  lies  beyond  the  Jordan.  Besides,  they 
behold  the  impress  of  change  upon  every  aspect 
of  their  home.  All  that  is  near  and  dear  to  them 
there  is  passing  away.  It  is  but  the  shadow  of 
better  things  to  come.  And  as  the  type  bears 
some  resemblance  to  that  which  it  typifies,  we 
may  understand  both  by  considering  the  relation 
they  sustain  to  each  other.  "We  may  gain  a  new 
view  of  the  Christian  home  by  looking  at  it  in 
the  light  of  its  typical  relation  to  heaven;  and  we 
have  a  transporting  view  of  our  heavenly  home 
when  we  contemplate  it  as  the  antitype  of  our 
home  on  earth. 

The  Christian  home  on  earth  is  a  tent-home,  a 
tabernacle  adapted  to  the  pilgrim-life  of  God's 
people,  set  up  in  a  dreary  wilderness,  designed  to 
subserve  the  purposes  of  a  few  years,  as  a  prepa- 
ration for  a  better  home.  The  Christian,  amid  all 
his  domestic  enjoyments,  does  not  realize  that  his 
home  is  his  rest,  but  that  it  is  only  a  probation- 
ary state,  the  foretaste  and  anticipation  of  the 
rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  It 
is  but  the  emblem, — the  shadow  of  bis  eternal 
home;  and  it  is,  therefore,  unsatisfying;  it  dues 
not  meet-all  the  wants  of  our  nature;  there  is  a 
yearning  after  a  better  state;  the  purest  happi- 
ness it  affords  proceeds  from  the  hopes  and  long- 
ings it  begets,  and  the  interests  it  is  transferring 
to  eternity,  laying  up,  as  it  were,  treasures  in  a 
better  home.  Our  home  here,  develops  our  wants, 
inflames  our  desires,  excites  our  expectations,  ed- 
ucates, and  points  us  to  the  realities  of  which  it 
16 


362 


Till-    CHRISTIAN    noME. 


La  an  emblem;  but  it  docs  not  fully  satisfy  our 
desires,  it  only  increases  their  intensity.  The 
pilgrim  soul  of  the  child  of  God  pines  and  frets 
amid  all 

' '  Her  sylvan  scenes,  and  hill  and  dale 
And  liquid  lapse  of  murmuring  streams." 


These  afford  him  no  satisfaction  ;  they  only  de- 
velop in  him  the  saving  sense  of  earth's  insuffi- 
ciency ;  all  the  scenes  of  this  wilderness  state 
are  but  those  of  thorns,  and  desert  heath,  and 
barren  sands ;  and  he  cries  out  in  the  midst 
of  his  happy  home, — "This  is  not  your  rest!" 
Our  tent-home  may  include  every  earthly  cup, 
and  all  the  riches  and  honors  of  the  world,  yet 
it  satisfies  not,  and  the  Christian  turns  from 
it  all  to  rest  and  expatiate  in  a  life  to  come. 
Every  home  here  is  baptized  with  tears  and 
scarred  with  graves.  Its  poverty  is  a  burden, 
its  riches  are  snares,  its  friends  are  taken  from 
us;  broken  hearts  agonized  there;  restlessness 
is  tossed  to  and  fro  there;  and  disappointment 
reigns  in  every  member  there.  Hence  in  our 
wilderness-home  we  hunger  and  thirst,  and  pine 
for  something  more  satisfying.  AVe  turn  from 
the  shadow  to  the  reality;  and  realizing  the  in- 
sufficiency of  home  as  a  mere  type,  we  turn 
with  anxious  hope  to  that  which  it  typifies — 
our  heavenly  home. 

Beaven  is  the  antitype  of  the  Christian  home. 
There  the  latter  reaches  its  consummation,  and 


ITS    ANTITYPE.  363 

reaps,  the  rich  harvest  of  its  great  reward.  The 
Father;  the  Mother  of  us  all ;  our  Brethren;  our 
inheritance ;  our  all  sufficiency  are  there.  Yea, 
all  that  is  included  in  the  dear  name  of  home,  is 
treasured  up  there,  for  the  child  of  God.  In  that 
better  land  he  finds  the  reality  of  his  home  on 
earth ;  the  latter  is  but  the  prophecy  of  the  for- 
mer : — ' 

"  There  is  my  house  and  portion  fair, 
My  treasure  and  my  heart  are  there, 
And  my  abiding  home." 

That  better  home  is  radiant  with  light  and  love. 
There  you  shall  not  see  through  a  glass  darkly, 
but  shall  behold  all  things  face  to  face.  You 
shall  not  merely  know  in  part,  but  even  as  you 
are  known.  There  you  shall  realize  in  all  its  ful- 
ness what  you  dimly  taste  here.  We  have  a  hun- 
ger here  which  is  not  fully  satisfied  till  in  heaven 
we  pluck  the  fruits  of  the  tree  of  life.  "We  have 
a  thirst  here  which  is  not  fully  quenched  till  in 
heaven  we  drink  of  the  waters  of  the  river  of 
life  which  flows  fast  by  the  throne  of  God.  In 
our  tent-home  here,  we  eat  and  drink,  hut  hunger 
and  thirst  again  ;  we  arc  healed,  hut  we  sicken 
again  ;  we  live  in  the  light  of  truth,  hut  darkness 
and  clouds  intervene;  we  are  comforted  by  the 
spirit  and  by  friends ;  but  we  sorrow  and  weep 
again. 

But  in' heaven  "sighing  grief  shall  weep  no 
more;"  and  we  "shall  hunger  no  more,  neither 
shall  we  thirst  any  more ;  and  we  shall  not  say  I 


3C4 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


am  sick;  and  there  shall  be  no  night,  nor  sorrow, 
nor  tears,  nor  sighing,  nor  death ;  for  the  former 
things  arc  passed  away."  Love  will  thou  be  per- 
fect; there  will  be  no  heart-burnings  and  disap- 
pointments there.  There  you  shall  enjoy  the 
honey  without  the  sting,  and  the  rose  without  the 
thorn.  "Earth  hath  no  sorrows  that  heaven  can- 
not heal."  All  care  and  toil,  and  tears,  and  or- 
phanage, and  widowhood,  shall  drop  and  disap- 
pear at  the  threshold  of  heaven.  If  our  tent- 
home  stirs  up  within  us  imperishable  joys,  by  the 
power  of  anticipation  and  foretaste,  what  joy  will 
not  that  better  land  afford?  If  the  promise  is  so 
cheering,  what  must  the  fulfillment  be!  If  the 
pursuit  is  so  inspiring,  what  must  the  possession 
be!  If  our  home  on  Tabor,  where  we  have  but  a 
distant  view  of  home-life,  affords  us  so  much  hap- 
piness, what  must  our  home  on  the  eternal  throne 
of  God  be?  There  your  intercourse  with  the 
loved  ones  of  earth  will  not  be  clogged  by  pain 
and  infirmities.  Your  society  there  will  be  the 
most  endearing,  and  with  "a  great  multitude 
which  no  man  could  number,  of  all  nations,  and 
kindred,  and  people,  and  tongues,  standing  before 
the  throne,  clothed  with  white  robes,  and  palms 
in  their  hands."  You  shall  there  hold  fellowship 
with  the  fathers  of  a  thousand  generations,  with 
the  patriarchs,  and  prophets,  and  apostles,  and 
martyrs,  and  reformers,  and  the  "innumerable 
company  of  angels."  AVith  these  you  shall  en- 
gage in  the  most  delightful  avocation.  There 
will  be  no  indolence  there,  as  we  often  find  in 


ITS   ANTITYPE. 


365 


earthly  homes;  but  all  will  be  continually  en- 
gaged. "They  serve  Him  day  and  night  in  His 
temple."  There  will  be  one  unbroken  worship, 
which  will  afford  you  rapturous  delight.  Yon 
shall  be  presented  before  God's  glory,  with  ex- 
ceeding joy ;  for  "  in  His  presence  is  fullness  of 
joy,  and  at  His  right  hand  are  pleasures  for  ever- 
more." These  joys  will  be  eternal, — forever  and 
ever.  That  better  home  will  never  be  dissolved, 
cannot  be  shaken,  and  your  crown  of  glory  there 
is  a  crown  which  fadeth  not  away. 

But  this  happiness  and  glory  of  heaven  are  not 
only  eternal  but  progressive, — ever  increasing. 
There  is  nothing  stationary  there  with  the  saints ; 
but  their  powers  will  ever  expand  and  their  glory 
increase.  New  songs  will  be  ever  bursting  in  new 
strains  from  the  celestial  choir;  new  discoveries 
and  fresh  exclamations  of  praise  and  gratitude 
will  be  continually  made.  Here  on  earth  they 
were  "by  nature  the  children  of  wrath  even  as 
others;"  they  had  their  tribulations  and  often 
murmured  at  God's  dealings  with  them.  But 
there  in  that  heavenly  home  they  will  understand 
the  reason  for  all  this.  The  deep  mysteries  of 
the  Christian  life  are  now  revealed,  and  they  see 
that  a  father's  chastisements  are  the  work  of  a 
father's  love,  and  workcth  out  for  them  that  are 
exercised  thereby,  an  "exceeding  and  eternal 
weight  of  glory."  They  now  see  that  while  in 
their  tent-home  they  lived  in  the  center  of  a 
grand  system  of  natural,  providential  and  spirit- 
ual things,  all  of  which  were  working  in  beauti- 


- 


3CG 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


ful  harmony  together  for  "the  good  of  them  that 
loved  God  and  were  the  called  according  to  His 
purpose;"  and  with  rapturous  gratitude  they  cry 
out,  "Marvelous  are  thy  works,  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty; just  and  true  are  all  thy  ways,  0  thou 
King  of  Saints!" 

Here,  too,  they  will  fully  realize  the  wisdom  of 
the  Christian  home  and  life;  they  will  now  see 
how  wise  it  was  for  them  as  a  family,  to  serve  the 
Lord.  In  their  earthly  home,  they  "knew  whom 
they  believed,  and  were  persuaded  that  he  was 
able  to  keep  that  which  they  committed  unto 
I  rim  against  that  day."  They  did  this  in  the 
midst  of  fiery  trials.  They  were  unknown.  The 
world  hated  and  despised  them  as  she  did  their 
divine  Master.  But  they  persevered  unto  the 
end  ;  and  now  they  "  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the 
kingdom  of  their  Father."  We  shall  not  there, 
as  we  do  here,  eat  the  bread  of  care  and  drink 
the  waters  of  bitterness.  Here  thunders  spend 
their  echoes  and  lightnings  gleam  in  fierce  wrath 
around  our  homes.  There  such  sounds  and  storms 
never  come. 


"  No  sickness  there, 

No  weary  wasting  of  the  frame  away  ; 
No  fearful  shrinking  from  the  midnight  air  ; 
No  dread  of  summer's  bright  and  fervid  ray, 

Nu  hidden  grief, 

No  wild  and  cheerless  vision  of  despair ; 
N<>  vain  petition  for  a  swift  relief, 

No  tearful  eye,  no  broken  hearts  are  there- 


ITS    ANTITYPE.  3G7 

Care  has  no  home 

Within  that  realm  of  ceaseless  praise  and  song ; 
Its  tossing  billows  break  and  melt  in  foam, 

Far  from  the  mansions  of  the  spirit-throng. 

Tho  storm's  black  wing 

Is  never  spread  athwart  celestial  skies  ; 
Its  wailings  blend  not  with  the  voice  of  spring, 

As  some  too  tender  floweret  fades  and  dies." 


Christ  is  the  great  center  of  heaven's  glory  and 
attraction.  "Whom  have  I  in  heaven  but  thee?  " 
It  would  not  be  heaven  if  He  were  absent.  Its 
harps  would  become  unstrung,  and  its  voices 
would  lose  their  tune.  When  eternity  dawns  up- 
on our  disembodied  spirits,  and  the  heavenly 
home  appears  in  view,  with  its  golden  streets,  and 
living  temples,  and  crowns,  and  thrones,  and  joys, 
bursting  on  our  sight;  while  seraphim  and  cheru- 
bim, and  angels,  and  the  sainted  spirits  of  depart- 
ed friends — our  parents  and  children,  and  kin- 
dred, bend  over  its  threshold  to  hail  our  entrance 
with  songs  and  shouts  of  everlasting  joy, — oh, 
what  a  glorious  heritage  will  this  be!  But  all 
this  will  fade  into  insignificance  before  the  Lamb 
on  the  throne.  He  will  absorb  all  interest;  and 
will  be  all  and  in  all  to  its  unfading  treasures. 
Oh,  there  is  much  in  that  celestial  home  to  allure 
us  there.  Its  "  fields  arrayed  in  living  green,  and 
rivers  of  delight."  Its  blood-washed  throng,  its 
powns  :iu<l  peace,  the  angelic  choir,  our  friends 
and   relations, — perhaps   a   father  and  a  mother, 


308 


TIIK    C1IIU.STIAX    HOME. 


perhaps  a  husband  <>r  wife,  perhaps  a  brother 
or  a  sister,  or  a  child, — a  lovely  babe; — all  these 
make  heaven  dear,  and  draw  us  there.  They 
beckon  us  to  themselves;  they  are  waiting  for 
us  now,  and  on  the  glowing  pinions  of  love 
ti  my  come  thronging  :is  ministering  spirits,  to  our 
hearts. 

Bui  what  are  all  these  attractions  <>('  that  spirit- 
home,  compared  with  Jesus  there  as  the  crowning 
glory  of  them  all!  other  things  are  stars  and 
streamlets.  He  is  the  central  sun. — tin'  source 
of  all.  Take  Him  away,  and  all  tin1  brightness 
and  the  glory  of  that  heavenly  world  would  he- 
come  shrouded  in  darkness  and  desolation. 

There  i-  a  living  union  between  the  Christian's 
home  on  earth,  and  his  home  in  heaven.  Christ 
represents  our  nature  and  advocates  our  cause 
there.  The  saints  on  earth  and  the  inhabitants 
of  heaven  "hut  one  communion  make."  The 
latter  minister  to  the  former.  "  Are  they  not  all 
ministering  spirits,  sent  to  minister  unto  them 
Vho  shall  be  the  heirs  of  salvation  ?" 


Oh  !  a  mother's  spirit  lring 

O'er  her  last  pledge  of  earthly  love, 
Ami.  while  attending  angel's  sung, 

Welcom'd  her  ile;ir  one  home  ahove. 


Gentle  babe,  I  come  for  thee: 

1  did  eome  to  hear  thee  home, 
Far  from  mortal  agony ; 

1     uie,  then,  gentle  infant,  come. 


ITS    ANTITYPE.  3G9 

Yes ;  while  o'er  thy  mouldering  dust 

Falls  the  tear  of  earthly  love, 
Thou  shalt  live  amidst  the  just, 

Brighter  life  in  heaven  ahove." 

Every  thing  good  in  our  earthly  home  has  its 
echo  in  heaven,  and  sweeps  like  the  breath  of  God 
over  the  harps  of  the  blessed.  When  the  pious 
mother  kneels  with  her  child  in  prayer  to  God, 
it  sends  a  thrill  of  new  ecstasy  into  the  bosom  of 
the  redeemed  around  His  throne.  When  the 
child  gives  its  heart  to  Christ,  each  harp  bursts 
forth  with  a  new  anthem  of  joy  at  the  prospect  of 
that  accession  to  their  happy  band.  And  oh, 
what  unspeakable  joy  must  thrill  the  bosom  of  a 
sainted  mother  when  the  news  of  her  child's  con- 
version reaches  her  there ! — 

"  A  new  harp  is  strung,  and  a  new  song  is  given 
To  the  breezes  that  float   o'er  the  gardens  of  heaven." 

And  there,  too,  sainted  relations  continually 
warn  the  impenitent  members  of  the  tent-home. 
"Though  dead  they  yel  speak."  "Turn  ye,  turn 
ye;  for  why  will  ye  die?"  "The  spirit  and  the 
bride  say,  come!"  Oh,  regard  those  solemn  ad- 
monitions which  come  to  you  from  the  spirit- 
world!  With  unearthly  eloquence  they  urge 
you  to  "lay  aside  every  weight  and  the  Bin 
that  doth  so  easily  besel  yon,  :nxl  run  the  race 
set  before  you,  looking  unto  Jesus,  the  author 
and  finisher  of  your  faith."  And  oh,  if  you.  in 
obedience  to  these  angelic  persuasives  to  piety, 
*1G 


370 


THE    CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


yield  yourself  unto  the  Lord,  all  the  arches  of  that 
eternal  home  will  reverberate  with  the  sound  of 
jubilee  over  your  salvation,  until  its  echo  from 
harp  to  harp  shall  be  borne  up  to  the  throne  of 
God. 

And  as  there  is  a  living  union  of  the  Chris- 
tian's home  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  so  also  will 
there  be  a  conscious  union  and  recognition  of  the 
members  of  the  Christian  home,  when  they  enter 
that  better  land.  "When  the  tent-home  is  broken 
up,  and  its  members  take  their  place  and  enter 
upon  their  joys  in  the  heavenly  home,  they  will 
recognize  each  other,  and  exchange  congratula- 
tions. The  bonds  of  natural  affection  which 
bound  them  together  here  will  bind  them  also 
there.  They  will  possess  the  same  home-feeling 
and  sympathy;  they  will  love  each  other  as  mem- 
bers of  the  same  household;  the  parents  will  know 
and  love  their  children  as  parents;  and  the  chil- 
dren will  feel  towards  their  parents  as  children. 
Thus  in  the  clear  light  of  that  blessed  land  we 
shall  see  and  know  our  kindred,  and  shall  be  rec- 
ognized and  known  by  them.  All  family  ties  will 
be  re-knit ;  all  home-relationships  will  be  re- 
stored; all  the  links  of  affection  will  be  renewed. 
The  babe  that  withered  in  your  arms  like  a  frost- 
stricken  flower  in  winter,  will  come  forth  clad  in 
redemption  robes,  to  embrace  you  there ;  and 
one  of  your  joys  will  be  a  conscious  reunion  with 
him: — 

' '  We  shall  go  home  to  our  Father's  house  : 
To  our  Father's  house  in  the  skies, 


ITS    ANTITYPE. 


371 


Where  the  hope  of  our  souls  shall  have  no  blight, 

Our  love  no  broken  ties ; 
We  shall  roam  on  the  banks  of  the  river  of  peace, 

And.  bathe  in  its  blissful  tide ; 
•       ».nd  one  of  the  joys  of  our  heaven  shall  be, 

The  little  boy  that  died  !  " 

And  that  sain  tod  mother  of  yours  shall  greet  you 
there.  In  your  earth-home,  3-011  and  she  were 
united  in  faitli  and  love  and  hope ;  and  in  the 
morning  of  the  resurrection  you  shall  ascend 
together  from  the  family  grave-yard,  and  togeth- 
er bow  in  grateful  adoration  before  the  throne  of 
God. 

And  oh,  what  a  glorious  meeting  in  heaven 
that  will  be,  when  all  the  members  of  the  Chris- 
tian household  shall  unitedly  surround  the  mar- 
riage supper  of  the  Lamb!  It  will  be  joyful  be- 
yond conception.  There  they  "  shall  meet  at 
Jesus'  feet, — shall  meet  to  part  no  more  !  "  No 
one  is  absent.  Bright  faces  will  meet  there; 
bounding  hearts  will  meet  there;  and  011  the 
banks  of  the  river  of  life  they  will  walk  hand 
in  hand,  as  they  did  unitedly  in  this  vale  of 
tears.  "There  19  hereafter  to  be  no  separation 
in  that  family.  No  one  is  to  lie  down  on  a  bed 
of  pain.  No  one  to  wander  away  into  tempta- 
tion. No  one  to  sink  into  the  arms  of  death. 
Never  in  heaven  is  that  family  to  move  along  the 
slow  procession,  clad  in  the  habiliments  of  woe, 
to  consign  one  of  its  members  to  the  tomb!"— Rev. 
A.  Barnes. 

If  heaven  is  our  better  home,  where  the  mem- 


J 


= 


372  THE    CHRISTIAN'    BOMB. 


of  Christian  families  meet  to  part  no  more; 
if  dreams  cannot  picture  a  world  so  fair:  audit' 
eye  lias  not  Been,  nor  ear  heard,  nor  human  heart 
conceived  the  felicity  of  its  peaceful  inhabitants, 
then  we  should  greatly  rejoice  that  our  pious  kin- 
dred have  been  taken  there,  and  that  we  are 
blessed  with  the  hope  of  reunion  with  them  in 
that  heavenly  home: — 

.     .     .     "If  to  Christ,  with  faith  sincere, 

Your  babe  at  death  was  given, 
The  kindred  tie  that  bound  you  here, 
Though  rent  apart  with  many  a  tear, 

Shall  be  renewed  in  heaven  !  " 

In  our  tent-home,  we  should  cultivate  spiritual 
longings  after  heaven,  and  live  in  the  true  hope 
and  assurance  of  entering  there.  The  soul  of  the 
Christian,  conscious  of  the  emptiness  of  all  things 
here,  rests  and  expatiates  in  a  life  to  come.  In 
proportion  to  his  preparation  for  it.  and  his  near- 
ness to  it.  will  he  the  depth  of  his  aspirations  and 
the  assurance  of  his  hope.  The  widowed  mother, 
who  fe.ls  that  part  of  her  household  is  in  heaven 
ami  that  soon  she  will  join  them  there,  yearns 
with  all  the  pining  of  home-sickness,  for  departure 
to  the  promised  land,  which  is  far  better. 

"  When  shall  my  labors  have  an  end, 
In  joy  and  peace  and  thee  !  " 

Even  these  honeaand  longings  after  reunion 
with  the  departed  in  heaven,  afford  her  joy,  and 


ITS   ANTITYPE.  373 

open  in  her  panting  spirit  a  foretaste  of  unearthly 
bliss.  To  her  aspiring  faith  all  things  look  heav- 
enward. The  stars  of  the  sky,  and  the  flowers 
of  the  field  smile  their  blessings  upon  her;  and 
she  welcomes  death  to  break  off  her  chains,  to 
draw  the  bolts  and  bars,  and  open  the  prison  doors 
of  her  house  of  clay,  that  her  lmmc-sick  spirit  may 
go  up  to  that  happier  land  where  her  possessions 
lie  :— 

"  Let  me  go  !  my  heart  is  fainting 
'Neath  its  weight  of  sin  and  fears, 
And  my  wakeful  eyes  arc  failing 
With  these  ever-falling  tears  ! 
For  the  morning  I  am  sighing, 

While  I  earth's  long  vigils  keep ; 
Here  the  loved  are  ever  dying, 
And  the  loving  live  to  weep ! 

Let  me  go  !  I  fain  would  follow, 

Where  I  know  their  stops  have  passed— 
Far  beyond  life's  heaving  billows, 

Finding  home  and  heaven  at  last! 
While  my  exiled  heart  is  pining 

To  behold  my  Father's  face, 
They,  in  His  own  brightness  shining, 

Beckon  me  to  that  blest  place  ! 

Let  me  go  !  I  hear  them  falling, 

'Ho  !  thmi  weary  one, — come  home  !' 
Words  which  on  mine  ears  are  falling, 

Wheresoe'er  my  footsteps  roam, 
I  can  catch  the  far-off  murmurs 

Of   life's  river.   MVeet   an<l   low, 

Calling,  fn»m  earth's  hitter  waters, 
Unto  me — 0  let  me  go  !'' 


374 


TIIE   CHRISTIAN    HOME. 


Gentle  reader !  seek  that  better  land.    Letyo 
home  be  a  preparation  for,  and  a  pilgrimage  to, 
home  in  heaven.      Yon  are  now  in  the  wildern 
beset  on  every  side   by  enemies.      Go  forward ! 

You  are  now  in  the  deep  vale, — in  the  low  re- 
treats of  pilgrim  life.  "  Friend,  go  up  higher!" 
"Be  thou  faithful  unto  death,  and  you  shall  re- 
ceive a  crown  of  life."  Be  patient  in  tribulation. 
The  storms  that  swell  around  your  pilgrim  home 
will  soon  subside,  and  a  cloudless  sky  will  burst 
upon  you;  the  winter  gloom  and  desolation  will 
60011  pass  away;  and  "sweet  fields  arrayed  in  liv- 
ing green  and  rivers  of  delight,"  will  spread  out 
themselves  before  your  enraptured  vision.  Re- 
member that  "the  sufferings  of  the  present  time 
arc  not  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  glory  that 
shall  be  revealed  in  us."  In  a  few  years  at  most 
the  conflict  shall  end,  and  sighing  grief  shall  weep 
no  more;  the  wormwood  and  the  gall  will  be  .  \. 
changed  for  the  enp  of  salvation  :  the  armor  and 
the  battle-field  will  be  exchanged  for  the  white 
garment,  the  crown  and  the  throne.  Soon  youi 
typical  homestead  shall  be  exchanged  for  your  an- 
titypieal  home;  and  we  shall  unite  in  the  home. 
song  of  everlasting  joy. — the  song  of,  "unto  Him 
thai  loved  ns  and  washed  ns  in  His  own  blood,  to 
Him  be  praise  and  glory  and  dominion  forever!" 
Le1  the  hope  of  soon  entering  that  happy  home, 
Btimnlate  you  to  increased  ardor  in  the  cause  of 
your  Master.  Methinks,  some  who  will  read  these 
pages,  have  snow-white  locks  and  wrinkled  brows 
and  faded  cheeks ;   and  these  tell  you  that  soon 


CONCLUSION.  375 

your  pilgrim  journey  will  be  ended,  your  tent- 
home  dissolved,  and  your  staff  laid  aside;-  and  oh, 
if  you  have  made  God  the  strength  of  your  heart 
and  your  portion  forever,  you  shall  welcome  death 
with  joy ;  yea,  you  will  now  he  anxious  to  lay  aside 
these  garments  of  toil  and  conflict,  and  soar  away 
to  that  better  country,  where  the  wicked  cease  from 
troubling,  and  the  weary  are  at  rest.  With  holy 
pantings  after  God  you  will  say,  "  Come,  Lord 
Jesus,  come  quickly!" 

"  Let  me  go  !  my  feet  are  weary, 
In  the  desert  where  I  roam. 
Let  me  go  !  the  way  is  dreary — 

Let  the  wanderer  go  home  ! 
I  am  weary  of  the  darkness 

Of  these  lonely,  failing  streams — 
•  Let  me  go  where  founts  are  flashing 

In  the  light  of  heaven's  beams  ! 

Let  me  go  !  my  soul  is  thirsting 

For  those  waters,  bright,  and  clear, 
From  the  fount  of  glory  bursting — 

Ah  !  why  keep  the  pilgrim  here  ? 
.Let  me  go  !  0,  who  would  linger, 

Fainting,  fearing,  and  athirst, 
When  before  us  lies  a  region 

Where  undying  pleasures  burst?" 

"We  have  now  enumerated  some  of  the  elements 
of  the  Christian  hom< — its  ((institution,  its  min- 
istry, its  trials,  its  joys,  and  its  relation  to  a  better 
home  in  heaven.     J>ut  we  have  not  exhausted  this 


376  THE   CHRISTIAN  HOME. 

interesting  subject ;  we  have  given  but  a  very  gen- 
eral and  imperfect  sketch.  If  this  our  first  effort 
will  contribute  to  the  salvation  of  one  soul,  we 
shall  be  compensated ;  and  should  our  encourage- 
ment justify  it,  we  may  continue  the  effort,  in  the 
preparation  of  a  work  on  the  historical  develop- 
ment of  the  Christian  home.  :♦    • 


SINIS. 


'. 


